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CDPXRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



A World in Perplexity 




CHRIST THE BREAD OF LIFE 
The Only One Who Can Feed the Starving Millions of the World 



A WORLD IN 
PERPLEXITY 



,.-^ 



By ARTHUR G.' DANIELLS 

Author of " The World War " 




REVIEW AND HERALD PUBLISHING ASSN, 

Washington, D. C. 

south bend, ind. new york city 



■ \ 



CONTENTS 



The Nations at War .... 7 

Obstacles to Peace .... 25 

Vain Efforts for Peace .... 55 

The Bible Man's Only Guide . . 69 

The Coming of the Prince of Peace . . 75 

World Problems in the Light of Prophecy 83 

The Eastern Question .... 93 

Signs of Christ's Coming . . . . ip3 

Distress of Nations, with Perplexity . 107 

The Gospel to All Nations . . . 113 

The Climax 123 



Copyright, 191? 

Review and Herald Pub. Assn. 

Washington. D. C. 



•APR 30 1918 

©C'A494909 




"Ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ve not discern the signs 
of the times?" Matt. 16: 3. 

FOREWORD 

NINETEEN centuries ago the Prophet of Nazareth foretold a time 
when there would be "distress o; nations, with perplexity," when 
men's hearts would fail them *' for fear, and for looking after those 
things which are coming on the earth." Today we see His words signally 
and strikingly fulfilled. 

The greatest war ever known to mankind has gripped the nations. 
Kings, statesmen, and whole peoples, seeing its horrors and confronted by 
its unsolved problems, are perplexed beyond measure. 

And not only so, but seeing no certain hope for the future of the world, 
no pilot to deliver them from the angry cross-currents of national ambi- 
tions, no way out of the dark and hopeless labyrinth in which they wan- 
der, the hearts of sober, thinking men everywhere are " failing them for 
fear." From thousands of trembling lips fall the questions: "What is 
the meaning of this breakdown of modern civilization?" "Must the 
world live on forever either deluged in blood or under the dark shadow of 
impending war •* " "Is there no deliverance, no hope ? " 

To a candid consideration of this terrible situation, and to a faithful 
answer to the supreme question of the hour, these pages are devoted. 
The author is neither an alarmist nor a political propagandist, but a 
sober, serious thinker, who in this little volume offers to his fellow men 
the only possible solution of the great problem that confronts the whole 
world. That men everywhere may find the guiding thread of divine 
truth to which they are directed in this book, is the earnest prayer and 

hope of 

THE PUBLISHERS. 




Harris & Ewing 



WOODROW WILSON 



President of the United States and Commander in Chief of the 
Forces of the Army and Navy 




Photo by Paul Thompson 

Field Artillery Camp, Fort Bliss, Tex. 



THE NATIONS AT WAR 

The wild onrush of events in a world at war; the 
sudden and startling changes in finance, in commerce, in 
industry; the quick movement of armies and of navies by 
which the hopes and ambitions of two generations are grat- 
ified; the dazed perplexity of the world's most trusted lead- 
ers, — all these are characteristic of the days through which 
we are living.'' — Nicholas Murray Butler, President Co- 
lumbia University, in *'A World in Ferment^** p. 88. 

The world is in perplexity. To all the sufferings 
incident to human experience in normal times has been 
added, by the most terrible of all wars, " distress of 
nations, with perplexity." 

Austria's declaration of war upon Serbia the 28th 
day of July, 1914, seemed a small event in this world 
of many and widely scattered nations, each bent upon 
the pursuit of its own interests. But that act set the 
world on fire. 

7 




NEWTON D. BAKER 
United States Secretary of War 



The Nations at War 



9 



The year 1918 opened with twenty-three nations at 
war, and ten more had severed diplomatic relations. 
The population of these nations is fifteen hundred mil- 
hon, — more than seven eighths of the human race. 
" Engulfed in war, nation after nation has been swept 
by the terrible tide of destruction. Neither hemisphere 
has escaped. Armies march in Europe, Asia, and 
Africa. No seas are without their mines, their battle- 




© Harris & Ewing 

Bird's-Eye View of the Cantonment under Construction at Quantico, Va. 

ships, and their submarines. All skies are speckled with 
armored craft." 

The Price We Pay 

The fourth year of the war found fifty million men 
under arms, notwithstanding the loss of thirty million by 
death, wounds, and capture, during the first three years of 
the conflict. And w^hile this appalling wastage of man- 
power has been going on, the money loss has likewise 
been enormous. Conservative estimates place the cost 
of the war for the first three and a half years at one 




Harris & Ewing 



10 



JOSEPHUS DANIELS 
Secretary of the Navy of the United States 



The Nations at War 11 

hundred twenty-five billion dollars. These figures stag- 
ger the human mind. A billion ! There are fewer than 
a billion minutes in nineteen hundred years. The ex- 
penditure of a billion dollars for this war represents a 
dollar for every minute that has passed since the birth 
of Christ to the close of 1900. But this war has cost 
one hundred twenty-five times that sum, which means 
that in three and a half years these nations have spent 
a sum equal to one hundred twenty-five dollars for every ' 
minute of the Christian era. 

During the first ten months the United States has 
been in the war it has cost the Government seven billion 
dollars. This is an average expenditure of twenty-four 
million dollars a day, one million an hour, or $277 a 
second, day and night. What might not have been ac- 
complished had this money been used for the saving of 
life and the betterment of living conditions! 

When and how this amazing tragedy will end seems 
as uncertain after nearly four years of fighting as at 
anj^ time since the war began. The whole affair has 
proved to be so fraught with grave consequences that it 
has filled the minds of men everywhere with the most 
serious apprehension. 

"A Supreme Moment of History " 

The gravity of the present world situation was rec- 
ognized by President Wilson in his message to the Con- 
gress, December 4, 1917. His closing words were: 

"A supreme moment of history has come. The eyes 
of the people have been opened, and they see. The hand 
of God is laid upon the nations. He will show them 
favor, I devoutly believe, only if they rise to the clear 
heights of His own justice and mercy.'' 

These statements are pregnant with meaning. De- 
claring that we tace a supreme crisis, our chief magis- 
trate directs our minds to man's relationship and respon- 




© Press Illustrating Service, Inc.. N. Y. 

UNITED STATES TROOPS MARCHING THROUGH LONDON 

12 




© Harris & Ewing 



MAJOR GENERAL JOHN J. PERSHING 
Commander of the American Forces in France 



13 




© Harris & Ewing 



14 



ADMIRAL W. S. SIMMS 
Commander of the American Fleet Abroad 



Underwood & Underwood, N. Y. 

UNITED STATES BATTLESHIP "ARKANSAS 
Photographed from Brooklyn Bridge 



15 



16 



A World in Perplexity 



sibility to God, the great Sovereign of the universe. 
His earnest words suggest that the real cause of this 
world-tragedy lies back in the departure of the nations 
from God's standard of justice and mercy, and that 
the only true hope of deliverance rests in a return to 
that standard. While this view may seem irrational 
and superstitious to the materialistic mind, it will, in 




Photo, Boston Photo News Co. 

Guns of the Coast Defense " Somewhere in America 



this hour of dark uncertainty, appeal to the distressed 
millions of men and women throughout the world. 

Why this conclusion that '' a supreme moment of 
history has come " ? What is taking place that makes 
this moment supreme in the annals of the human race? 

A Portentous Hour 

Of the great events now being staged, Dr. Butler 
says : " The clock of time is about to strike the most 
portentous hour in all history." In his " Challenpre of the 



The Nations at War 



17 



Future," Professor Usher declares : " Upon this moment 
of time hangs all eternity." These are not the words 
of glib orators, nor excited agitators, nor wild alarm- 
ists. They are given to the world in all seriousness, 
by sober men, facing the darkest crisis that has ever 
come to this hard-hit world. 

Why is this hour said to be " the most portentous " 
of all history? Why the declaration that "upon this 




Underwood & Underwood, N. Y. 

Shells Being Shipped to the Front 



moment of time hangs all eternity " ? The times are 
unusual; the situation i3 abnormal; the complications 
between nations are full of peril. The whole world 
seems surcharged with the spirit of revolt against the 
existing order. As Dr. Butler says : '* It is more than 
a world at war; it is a world in fsrment." This means 
a world in unrest, agitation, uprising, tumult. It sug- 
gests the language of an ancient seer, who said : " The 



18 A World in Perplexity 

wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, 
whose waters cast up mire and dirt." Isa. 57 : 20. 

While it is true that the experience of the human 
race has always been one of unrest, of change, and of 
conflict, never in all that long history has this spirit 
been so nearly universal as at the present moment. 

Great Empires Swept by Revolution 

Russia, with a territory comprising one seventh of 
all the land in the world and a population close to one 
eighth of all the inhabitants of the earth, is in utter 
chaos. Tumult and revolution have swept that great 
empire as with the besom of destruction. The editor of 
the Washington Herald, in the issue of January 26, 
1918, says: 

"A war-crazed world may be a convert to chaos 
before it finishes its madness. Why not? The unbe- 
lievable has ceased to be merely possible. The Bolshe- 
vist germ is abroad in the world. It is contagious. 
Russia has become the political insane asylum of the 
world. It is the maddest thing in a mad, mad universe." 

And China, with its four hundred millions of people, 
nearly one fourth of the human race, has been in the 
throes of revolution for years. It is being torn by one 
uprising after another. 

I "A Fit of Political Alcoholism " 

Referring to these unsettled conditions, the editor of 
the North American Review says that " in these last 
ten years a strange breath has passed over " the world. 
The British Foreign Minister, Sir Edward Grey, de- 
clared in the House of Commons: 

" It is really as if, in the atmosphere of the world, 
there were some mischievous influence at work which 
troubles and excites every part of it. We are passing, 
this year, through a period of excitement; it is so still. 
Some countries are in revolution, others are at war; 




Photo by Paul Thompson 



ONE OF " OUR BOYS " 
Training for the European Battle Field 



19 



20 A World m Pe7'plexity 

and in several countries which are neither in revolution 
nor at war, there are people who seem to delight in 
discussing how near they have been, or are, or are 
likely to be, either to revolution or to war in the past, 
the present, or the future. Really it is as if the world 
were indulging in a fit of political alcoholism, and the 
best that can be done by those of us who are in posi- 
tions of responsibility is to keep cool and sober/' 

The World's Maelstrom 

Soon after these graphic statements were made, the 
explosion came, and now '* peace, freedom, and repre- 
sentative government; constructive work and wealth; 
education, science, and art; fraternity, charity, and mis- 
sions; spiritual religion, civilization, life itself! all are 
in the world's maelstrom/' — " The World Crisis and 
the Way to Peace/' p. 7. 

Yes, all that appeared to be great, and good, and 
abiding, and of real worth in the world, collapsed like 
a house of cards with the first blast of the war-storm. 
" The whole world order was changed in a night ! " 
** It is this alarming violence," says one writer, " this 
remorseless haste, as of a tornado tearing its way with 
resistless force across peaceful lands, which takes away 
our breath and paralyzes our thoughts. Before we 
have had time to guess whither events are leading us, 
we find ourselves in the center of the storm. . . . 
Human imagination is stunned by so sudden, so tre- 
mendous, and so unexpected a catastrophe." 

When men of long and clear vision take a sober 
look at the situation as it exists today, they are forced 
to pronounce this a " distempered world," and to say 
that " if ever the world saw a day of need, this is 
the day." We stand, says one, " in the presence of 
a world-tragedy." And the editor of the New York 
Evening Sun (Aug. 8, 1914) asks, " Did such strange 



The Nations at War 



21 



cross-currents ever before flow across a page of his- 
tory?" 

These alarming conditions have not sprung up dur- 
ing a night. They are of long standing, and have 
been gradually growing worse. Their existence has 
not been clearly seen nor fully realized. A false se- 
curity has blinded our eyes. Implicit trust in a civili- 
zation that seemed deep and broad and high, led us to 




© Underwood & Underwood, N. Y. 

American Soldiers Learning French Words and Phrases 

imagine that it was slowly but surely triumphing over 
the forces of evil. But the tragic war now devastating 
the world has awakened us to truer conceptions. What 
appeared to be a great, abiding, protecting civilization, 
proved to be but a thin veneer over the worst passions 
of the natural man. 

Mankind Back in the Primeval Forest 

The utter failure of science, philosophy, interna- 
tional treaties and alliances, and also the religions of 



22 



A World in Perplexity 



the world, to prevent the ** ghastly crisis " through 
which the world is now passing, is forcibly stated by 
Dr. Butler as follows: 

** The words that oftenest come to our lips, the ideals 
that we cherish and pursue, the progress that we fan- 
cied we were making, seem not to exist. Mankind is 
back in the primeval forest, with the elemental brute 
passions finding a truly fiendish expression. The only 





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A Red Cross Shelter in the Vosges Mountains 

apparent use of science is to enable men to kill other 
men more quickly and in greater numbers. The only 
apparent service of philosophy is to make the worse 
appear the better reason. ... 

'* What are we to think? Is science a sham? Is 
philosophy a pretense? Is religion a mere rumor? Is 
the great international structure of friendship, good 
will, and scholarly co-operation . . . only an illusion? 



'^'^ — rpi^^ ]^aUo7is~drWdr 23 

Are the long and devoted labors of scholars and of 
statesmen to enthrone Justice in the place of Brute 
Force in the world, all without effect?'* — ''A World m 
Ferment/' pp. 13, 14. 

Let no one imagine that this dark picture is over- 
drawn. This is a forceful presentation of the facts, 
though the masses do not see them in all their fright- 
fulness. After returning from one of his visits to the 



'i^ Underwood & Underwood, N. Y. 

WAR DOG GUARDING HIS MASTER'S KIT 
" Couldn't be Left in Safer Hands " 

British trenches in France, Lloyd George, the premier 
of Great Britain, said: 

" As to the war zone, its terrors are indescribable. 
I have just visited the battle fields of France. I stood, 
as it were, at the door of hell. I saw myriads march- 
ing into the furnace. I saw some coming out of it, 
scorched and mutilated. The ghastliness must never 
be re-enacted on this earth." 




Photo, Boston Photo News Cu. 

GERMAN 42-CENTIMETER SHELL 
Compared with a French 75-Millimeter Shell at Left, and a German 

24 



77-Millimeter Shell at Right 




Palestine, the Crossroads of Great World Highways 



OBSTACLES TO PEACE 



What must the nations do to bring peace? The an- 
sD^er 15 so simple that it seems too eas}). It is so searching 
that it seems too difficult. . . . Let us go bacl^. Why 
are the peoples warring? — Because the}^ are looking at the 
lower and not at the higher. They are thinking of self and 
of gain and ambition and mastery and revenge. Hence 
they are thinking of war.'* " There are higher ranges as 
well as lower. There is a logic of peace as Well as a logic 
of strife.'' — E. Ellsworth Shumaker, Ph. D., in *' The 
World Crisis and the Way to Peace," pp. 60, 61 , 64. 

The cry of mankind now is for peace. Of the 
horrors of war the world has had enough. The vic- 
tories and the spoils looked for when the war began 
have not materialized. Instead there have been se- 

25 



20 A World in Perplexity 

rious failures and staggering losses. The way grows 
harder and darker as the days go by. The common 
people are weary of slaughter, hunger, and suffering. 
They are demanding peace, and emphasizing their de- 
mands by strikes and riots. Half a hundred peace 
societies throughout the world are devoting their sym- 
pathies, scholarship, and diplomatic experience to the 
formulation of peace proposals, which they hope may 
prove acceptable to the warring nations. Cabinets, war 
councils, and rulers send forth one set of peace terms 
after another to feel their way to a cessation of hos- 
tilities. And while this cry for peace is ringing in our 
ears, and these feverish efforts are being made, the 
nations are speeding up their preparations for more, 
deadly warfare. 

Uncertainty, perplexity, and distress are tightening 
their grip upon the world. The minds of men are 
turning with increasing anxiety to the future. How 
long, it is asked, is this world-tragedy to continue? 
At the present rate of destruction of men, waste of 
money, and lowering of moral and spiritual standards, 
what will be left if the war does not close soon? 
What assurance have we that this appalling catastro- 
phe will be followed by a lasting peace rather than by 
a more colossal Armageddon? 

"A Guiding Thread " 

"It is not easy, perhaps it is impossible, to find an 
Ariadne who will give us a guiding thread through 
this labyrinth of change. Presuppositions that have 
long sustained the solid fabric of personal and of na- 
tional conduct have been destroyed. Assumptions that 
have seemed to be made certain by the earlier prog- 
ress of man have disappeared under the pressure of 
the latest manifestations of trained human capacity 
for evil." — *' A World in Ferment/' p. 245'. .-^ 



Obstacles to Peace 



27 



There is a way of escape from this dark labyrinth. 
There is a " guiding thread " to lead us out. There 
is *' a logic of peace as well as a logic of strife." 
Peace will come when the thread of that logic is 
found and followed. But unless it is followed, all 
efforts to achieve permanent peace must prove futile. 



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© Underwood & Underwood, N. Y. 

A British Big Gun 

In dealing with the question of peace we must go 
back to the causes of the conflict. The paramount 
issues that precipitated the mighty war now rocking 
the world must be reckoned with in any attempt to 
reach safe conclusions regarding the outcome. It is 
not reasonable, from a human point of view, to suppose 
that the war can be terminated and an enduring peace 
be established, without a settlement of the great issues 
involved. 



28 



A World in Perplexity 



What were those issues? What were the primary 
causes of the war? Do those causes still exist? Are 
the nations finding a basis for the settlement of their 
fundamental differences? From the political, commer- 
cial, and military viewpoints, the true answers to 




Photo. Press Illustrating Service, Inc., N. Y. 

An Aeroplane with Quick-Firing Gun 

these questions must be the basis of reliable con- 
clusions concerning the future. 

The Primary Cause of the World War 

While it is true, as Dr. Morris Jastrow, Jr., of the 
University of Pennsylvania, says, " A war like the pr^s- 
ent one cannot ... be carried back to any one issue, 
isolated from all others," yet it is evident that the is- 
sues are so closely connected that they may be bound 
together and set down as the one great primary cause. 



Obstacles to Peace 



29 



That chief cause, it may fairly and safely \)e said, 
was the attempt to control world highways. Center- 
ing in this were a number of closely aUied issues, 
such as territorial possessions, access to the world's 







Photo, Press Illustrating Service, Inc., N. Y. 

A German Aeroplane Brouent Down on French Soil 

markets, commercial advantages, political and military 
supremacy, and the rights and freedom of small na- 
tions. 

As the war has progressed, and especially since 
our own nation became involved, the question of mak- 
ing the world safe for democracy has become a leading 
issue, but underneath this lies the original cause al- 
ready mentioned. 



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Obstacles to Peace 31 

A Struggle for World Highways 

Regarding the real cause of the war, Maynard Owen 
Williams, writing from the Near East, where he had 
gone to give the question careful study, says : *' The 
war is being fought, not for a European capital, but 
for a world highway." He then shows how Russia 
began fighting to secure control of the Bosporus and 
the Dardanelles in order that she might have an open 
road to the Mediterranean and the oceans, and thus 
to the world's markets. England, he shows, is fighting 
to maintain her control of the Strait of Gibraltar, the 
Mediterranean, and the Suez Canal, that she may 
have an open, safe highway to the Far East. Ger- 
many, he makes clear, is fighting to establish a perma- 
nent overland highway from the North Sea to the 
Persian Gulf, and thence to the markets of the world. 

Austria, Bulgaria, and Turkey are fighting as al- 
lies of Germany because they believe their national 
interests will be best served if Germany's road to the 
gulf is established. France and Italy are fighting as 
allies of England because they are persuaded that their 
interests and advantages are bound up with those of 
the United Kingdom. 

The roads of these two groups cross; their interests 
conflict; their policies clash. To the rulers and people 
.of the several nations the interests of each seem vital 
to its very existence. It is because these vital in- 
terests and national aims conflict so seriously that 
these nations are at one another's throats. 

Asiatic Turkey the Storm-Center 

Further evidence that these nations are fighting 
primarily for highways to the world's markets, is 
found in the fact that the actual storm-center of this 
war is not in Europe, but in Asiatic Turkey. This 
is a most important factor in the whole question of 
war and peace, 



32 A World in Perplexity 

" The war comes from the East ; the war is waged 
for the East; the war will be decided in the East." 
So writes Ernst Jackh in the Deutsche Politik, Decem- 
ber, 1916. 

Why this war comes from the East, why it is be- 
ing waged for the East, and how vital are the issues 
at stake, is set forth by Frederic C. Howe, who says: 




Underwood & Underwood, N. Y. 

Bomb-Proof Shelter in London 



" Access to, free passage through, or control of 
the Mediterranean is the permanent objective behind 
the foreign policy of all the greater European powers. 
It is an objective by its very nature so diffused and 
covering such a wide geographical area that it can- 
not be expressed in state papers, even had the n:i- 
tions in conflict dared to declare their ultimate poli- 
cies. It is an objective, however, that lies at the very 



Obstacles to Peace 



33 



industrial and commercial life of Great Britain and 
Russia, that is bound up with all the ambitions of 
Germany, and that underlies the industrial and finan- 
cial aspirations of Italy and the Balkan States." — 
Scrihner's Magazine, May, 1916, p. 621. 

This claim is ably supported by a great array of 
the most reliable authorities. In his book, *' Obstacles 




Underwood & Underwood, N. Y. 

The Work of One Bomb Dropped from an Aeroplane in a Raid on London 

to Peace," issued in the early part of 1917, Mr. S. S. 
McClure says (page 5) : 

" The real problem of this war is Asiatic Turkey. 
The settlement of this question may involve a continu- 
ous series of devastating wars at longer or shorter 
intervals for generations. ... If there can be found 
no other alternative than the control of this territory, 
either by Germany and her allies, or by England and 



34 



A World in Perplexity 



her allies, resulting in the one case in threatening the 
safety of the British Empire, and in the other in pre- 
venting German expansion, — wars and rumors of wars 
will dominate the twentieth century." 

Russia and Germany 

He then proceeds to give reasons for his conclusion: 
" The interests of Russia in regard to the Bosporus 
and Asia Minor are antagonistic to those of Germany 




(Q Press Illustrating St-rvice, Inc.. N. Y. 

Alpine Fighters on the Italian Front 

and Turkey. Germany's splendid dream of an Eastern 
Empire demands the control of the route from Berlin 
through Constantinople to Basra [on the Persian Gulf]. 
With the development of the wheat fields in the Black 
Sea region it is a vital necessity for Russia to control 
Constantinople and the Bosporus. I asked Professor 
Rohrbach, who is the great authority on matters in- 
volving Russia and Germany, how it would be possi- 
ble to safeguard Russia's interests with Germany in 



Obstacles to Peace 



35 



control of the Bosporus. He replied very clearly that 
the interests of Germany and Russia were so opposed 
to each other that it was impossible to meet the needs 
of both, and that inasmuch as German civilization 
was superior to Russian civilization, Russia's interests 
must be sacrificed, rather than Germany's." — " Ob- 
stacles to Peace/' p. 18. 

This conflict of the interests and policies of Russia 
and Germany is clearly outlined by Professor Seymour, 




Photo, Press Illustrating Service, Inc., N. Y. 
Sharpshooting Scouts in the Snowy Alps, Dressed in White to Avoid Detection 

of Yale University : '' The activity of Russia, checked 
in the Far East, must inevitably be turned towards 
the Balkans and Constantinople, and in this quarter 
Russian ambitions conflicted with Germany's purpose 
of controlling a sweep of teri'itory extending from the 
North Sea to the Persian Gulf. It was unthinkable 
that the interests of Pan-Germanism and Pan-Slavism 
should not clash in the Near East." — '' The Diplomatic 
Background of the War," p, 160. 



36 A World in Perplexity ' 

England and Germany 

England and Germany, it is well known, are the 
chief antagonists in this struggle that has involved 
the world. Like mighty wrestlers, these nations are 
" locked in clutch unto death." This is because they 
have interests which they are unable to adjust, and 
which seem vital to the future of each. Again Pro- 
fessor Seymour says: 

*' With the development of Germany's world policy 
and the beginning of the Bagdad Railway, British 
statesmen perceived that Teutonic control in the Bal- 
kans and on the Dardanelles threatened India and the 
route to India far more seriously than did the aspira- 
tions of Russia." — Id., jj. 159. 

Why England had reason to fear the consumma- 
tion of Germany's world policy, as indicated by the 
Bagdad Railway enterprise, may be easily seen in a 
comprehensive statement made by a prominent and 
authoritative German writer, Professor Rohrbach: 

" A direct attack upon England across the North 
Sea is out of the question; the prospect of a German 
invasion of England is a fantastic dream. It is nec- 
essary to discover another combination in order to hit 
England in a vulnerable spot — and here we come to 
the point where the relationship of Germany to Turkey, 
and the conditions prevailing in Turkey, become of de- 
cisive importance for German foreign policy, based as it 
now is upon watchfulness in the direction of England. 
. . . England can be attacked and mortally wounded by 
land from Europe only in one place — Egypt. 

'' The loss of Egypt would mean for England not 
only the end of her dominion over the Suez Canal and 
of her connections with India and the Far East, but 
would probably entail the loss also of her possessions 
in Central and East Africa. The conquest of Egypt 
by a Mohammedan power like Turkey would also im- 




t'hcto, Press lllustratin!? Service, Inc., N. Y. 

SHELTERS CUT IN THE ALPS 6,000 FEET ABOVE SEA LEVEL 

37 



Obstaclen to Peace 39 

peril England's hold over her sixty million Mohamme- 
dan subjects in India, besides prejudicing her relations 
with Afghanistan and Persia. . . . Egypt is a prize 
for which Turkey would be well worth the risk of 
taking sides with Germany in a war with England. 
The policy of protecting Turkey, which is now pur- 
sued by Germany, has no other object but the desire 
to effect an insurance against the danger of a war 
with England." — " The Bagdad Railway," by Professor 
Rohrbach (Berlin, 1911) ; reproduced in " Obstacles to 
Peace," p. 19. 

Germany's Expectations 

After this war had been in progress some months, 
when the outlook appeared favorable for Germany, 
Herr Trampe, a German writer, gave the following bold 
outline of Germany's expectations: 

" When England . . . loses India, then her world- 
power will be broken. The ancient highroad of the 
world is the one which leads from Europe to India — 
the road used by Alexander — the highway w^hich leads 
from the Danube via Constantinople to the valley of 
the Euphrates, and by northern Persia, Herat, and 
Kabul to the Ganges. Every yard of the Bagdad Rail- 
way which is laid brings the owner of the railway 
nearer to India. What Alexander performed and Na- 
poleon undoubtedly planned, can be achieved by a 
third treading in their footsteps." — " The Fight for 
the Dardaiielles," by Herr Trampe (Stuttgart, 1915); 
reproduced ifi " Obstacles to Peace," p. 453. 

In 1916 Hans Rohde gave the climax of the pro- 
gram: 

'' The sword had to decide the fate of Near Asia, 
and a decision has fallen, unless- unforeseen events 
intervene. Germany will not be limited to the sphere 
of influence formerly allotted to her, but in future 
she will devote her energies to Armenia, Syria, and 



40 



A World in Perplexity 



Mesopotamia in the interests of German capitalists 
and merchants. In this manner the way will be kept 
open which the war indicated and which, together 
with our allies, we have fought for and won, — the 
way that leads from Berlin via Vienna — Sofia — 
Constantinople — Bagdad, to the Persian Gulf, and 




Committee on Public Information 

American Boys in France Being Taught the Use of Liquid Fire 

has become the vital nerve in our economic life and 
our policy." — " Deutschland in Vorderasien '* (Berlin, 
1916) ; reprinted in " Obstacles to Peace,'' p. 456. 

The Bagdad Railway Project 

In the quotations given in the preceding pages 
frequent mention is made of the Bagdad Railway, and 
the inference is plainly given that this enterprise is 
one of the prominent factors or causes of this con- 



Obstacles to Peace 41 

flict between the nations. It is worth while to give 
this project careful study. Dr. Jastrow, Jr., who has 
devoted years to archaeological work in Asiatic Turkey, 
has published an excellent book entitled, '' The War and 
the Bagdad Railway." In his preface he says: 

*' The purpose of this volume is to elucidate an 




© Underwood & Underwood, N. Y. 

The Invader Burning: a Serbian Village 

aspect of the war which . . . was the most significant 
single factor contributing to the outbreak of the long- 
foreseen war in 1914, and will form one of the most 
momentous problems when the time for the peace 
negotiations arrives. Ever since the announcement 
was made towards the close of the year 1899 that the 
Turkish government had conceded to a German syn- 
dicate the privilege of building a railway to connect 
Constantinople with Bagdad through a transverse route 



A ¥/orUl in Perplexity 43 

across Asia Minor, the Bagdad Railway has been the 
core of the Eastern Question." 

In the body of the volume (page 28) we read: 
" In our own days we are witnessing what prom- 
ised to be the reopening of the old historic highway 

— the bridge uniting Europe to Asia — to Western 
control, through the project of a great railway stretch- 
ing along a distance of nearly 2,000 miles from a point 
opposite Constantinople to Bagdad, and thence to Basra 
and to the Persian Gulf. That project, which was 
well under way at the time of the outbreak of the 
war, is thus marked through its historical background 
as one of the most momentous enterprises of our age 

— more momentous because of the issue involved than 
the opening up of the two other world highways, the 
Suez and Panama Canals. 

A Symptom of the Dissolution of the Turkish Empire 

'' The creation of a railway from Constantinople 
to Bagdad under European control is at once a symp- 
tom of the dissolution of the Turkish Empire." 

'' The railway has been a nightmare resting heavily 
on all Europe for eighteen years — ever since the an- 
nouncement in 1899 of the concession granted to the 
Anatolian Railway Company. No step ever taken by 
any European power anywhere has caused so much 
trouble, given rise to so many complications, and has 
been such a constant menace to the peace of the world. 
No European statesman to whom the destinies of his 
country have been committed has rested easily in the 
presence of this specter of the twentieth century. In 
the last analysis the Bagdad Railway will be found 
to be the largest single contributing factor in bring- 
ing on the war, because through it more than through 
any other cause, the mutual distrust among European 
powers has been nurtured, until the entire atmosphere 
of international diplomacy became vitiated. The ex- 



44 



A World in Perplexity 




Keystone View Co 



Bread Baking in Syria 



planation for this remarkable phenomenon, transform- 
ing what appeared on the surface to be a magnificent 
commercial enterprise, with untold possibilities for use- 
fulness, into a veritable curse, an excrescence on the 
body politic of Europe, is to be sought in the history 
of the highway through which the railway passes. 
The control of this highway is the key to the East 

the Near East and the Farther East as well. Such 

has been its role in the past — such is its significance 
today/'— M., pp. U4, 115. 



Obstacles to Peace 



45 




Q Keystone View Co. 

Native Girl of Lebanon, Syria, at the Linen Loom 



The Greatest Single Factor 

Summarizing these remarkable statements, we have 
the following: 

1. The Bagdad Railway project was '' the most sig- 
nificant single factor contributing to the outbreak of 
the long-foreseen war in 1914." 

2. It will form " one of the most momentous prob- 
lems when the time for the peace negotiations arrives." 

3. From its inception it "has been the core of the 
Eastern Question." 





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Obsiacies to Peace 47 

4. It has been " a nightmare resting heavily on all 
Europe for eighteen years." 

5. " No step ever taken by any European power 
anywhere has caused so much trouble, given rise to 
so many complications, and has been such a constant 
menace to the peace of the world." 

6. It has been " a veritable curse, an excrescence 
on the body politic of Europe." 

7. '' The control of this highway is the key to the 
East — the Near East and the Farther East as well." 

The Life-Cord of Nations Threatened 

Why the storm-center of this world war should be 
in Asiatic Turkey; why the control of the Mediterra- 
nean Sea should lead to such a war; and why the 
Bagdad Railway project should be such a significant 
factor in precipitating this mighty struggle of the 
nations, is forcibly presented by Frederic C. Howe 
in his book, " Why War." His statement is worthy 
of most careful study: 

" The nations whose interests are most in conflict 
are Great Britain, Germany, and Russia. The economic 
clash is primarily between Germany and Great Britain. 
And the interests of these two countries seem irrecon- 
cilable. They go to the very heart of their position 
and power. They are deep rooted in the commercial 
and financial life of these nations. . . . 

" The Mediterranean is in effect a British sea, com- 
manded at Gibraltar and Egypt by England's posses- 
sion of these two strategic points. The building of the 
Bagdad Railway is a menace to this control as well as 
the shipping and overseas trade of the British Empire. 
This new rail route thi^eatens not only the life-cord of 
the British Empire; it strikes at the underpinning of 
the entire British financial world [italics ours]." — " Why 
War," p. 334. 



48 A Wo7id in Perplexity 

"A similar impasse exists between Russia and 
whichever power controls Constantinople and the Bos- 
porus. The industrial life of Russia is dependent on 
the marketing of her surplus wheat. Her wheat ex- 
ports pay the interest on her debt. They finance her 
imports. Her only open outlet is to the arctic seas, 
where her ports are closed for a part of the year. 




(0 International Film Service, Inc., N. Y. 

British Forces on the Way to Jerusalem 

" Russia like Germany has dreams of empire to 
the south. They come into conflict with Great Britain 
in Persia and with Turkey at Constantinople. Here 
again is another seemingly irreconcilable warfare of 
interest which a solution of the conflicts of the finan- 
ciers does not remove. 

" And these conflicts of Germany, England, and Rus- 
sia are all so identified ivith the life [italics ours] of 
these countries that any concession by either power in- 
volves the abandonment of imperial pretensions as well 
as industrial and commercial advantages. Claims aris- 
ing over these conflicts are not justiciable. They cannot 
be submitted to Hague tribunals. 



Obstacles to Peace 



49 



" These conflicts about the Mediterranean are among 
the most difficult problems which the war presents. 
It would seem that they will only be settled by occu- 
pation and force. They may delay the duration of the 
war far longer than would the purely European ques- 
tions. For only exhaustion will induce Germany to 
abandon the contest for which she has so long been 













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British Artillery Crossing the Desert South of Jerusalem 

preparing, while Great Britain and Russia can only 
permit German supremacy in Turkey and Asia Minor 
as an admission of the beginning of the end of empire 
or the final defeat of the ambitions of centuries." — 
Id., pp. 336, 337. 

A Summary of Causes 

In the following brief statements are set forth the 
greatest causes of the war, and the greatest obstacles 
to peace, as Mr. Howe sees them: 

1. The vital interests of these warring nations are 
at stake. These interests are identified with the life 
and ambitions of these nations. *' They go to the very 




O Underwood & Underwood, N. Y. 

THE FALL OF JERUSALEM 

General Allenby at the Head of the British Forces Entering Jerusalem 
by the Jaffa Gate 



Ob.stacles to Peace 51 

heart of their position and power." They seem to 
them essential to their existence. 

2. These interests are in violent conflict. They cross 
at vital points. The interests of the nations on one side 
of the struggle threaten the " life-cord/' the " under- 
pinning," the purposes and ambitions, of the nations on 
the other side. The triumph of one group of interests 
means the destruction of the other group of interests. 

3. These interests seem irreconcilable. They are ''so 
identified with the life of these countries that any con- 
cession by either power involves the abandonment of 
imperial pretensions as well as industrial and commer- 
cial advantages. Claims arising over these conflicts are 
not justiciable." 

4. These interests have taken root and grown up 
through years of emigration, territorial expansion, and 
industrial and commercial development. They are the 
warp and woof of the ambitions and policies of these 
nations. They have been established by the ablest di- 
plomacy and statesmanship these nations could pro- 
duce, and they are interwoven with the treaties and 
alliances of centuries. 

Grave Questions Involved 

Are these statements true? If so, they involve ques- 
tions of the gravest possible character. What prize can 
be offered to Great Britain that will tempt her to aban- 
don the ambitions and policies of centuries that have 
builded for her a mighty empire? There is nothing to 
offer England that is as great to her as her empire. 

And what will induce Germany to abandon her 
cherished ambitions, her long, careful preparations, 
and her enormous expenditures for an empire stretch- 
ing from the North Sea to the Persian Gulf? 

All that is here said of Great Britain and Germany 
is equally true of the Russian people. In case Russia 



Obstacles to Peace 



53 



should be reconstructed, what could the powers offer 
that would induce her to surrender her century-old 
claim to the free passage of the Dardanelles and the 
Mediterranean to the open sea and the markets of the 
world ? 

From the standpoint of national interests and hu- 
man ambition, it surely seems that the only way these 
vital, conflicting interests can be adjudicated is by the 
sword. That is unquestionably the conviction of the 
nations at war. For that reason little, if any, ap- 
proach to peace has yet been made by any of the terms 
that have been proposed. 

Is there, then, to be no peace for the world? no 
deliverance from this hate, this killing, this mourning? 
Must this slaughter of men go on as long as there are 
men in the world? What is the truth, the absolute, 
reliable truth, concerning this great, increasingly se- 
rious situation? 




Photo, Boston Photo News Co. 

A " Ship of the Desert " Carrying Water to the British Soldiers 




An American Armored Truck 



VAIN EFFORTS FOR PEACE 

"// is true peace the rvortd noTv Tvanis. Of false peace 
rve have had hitter trial. 'Armed peace ' is an inner contra- 
diction. * Peace through preparation for Tvar ' is psycho- 
logical stupidity. Peace through the spirit of peace, and 
through preparation for peace, is the only truth and the only 
wisdom, whether in individuals or nations. If the world is 
not learning this now, we almost despair of the human race. 
. . . A righteous, merciful peace must come to Europe, or 
it will not be enduring. The peace of humiliating conquest 
can breed only new war.'' — E. Ellsworth Shumaker, 
Ph. D., in '' The World Crisis and the Way to Peace,'' 
pp. 55, 56. 

The world wants peace, but does not know how to 
get it. " Our best thoughts," says one, '' are directed 
toward that peace we climb so painfully to reach. . . . 
A stable peace between the great nations has been 
the hope of the ablest and best men for generations. 

55 




crwood, N. Y. 

THE RED CROSS AT WORK 
junded from the Front Trenches to the 



First Dressing Stations 



56 



Vain Efforts for Peace 57 

They have urged many plans. And obviously, up to 
the present moment, all their plans have failed. War 
is a knot that has defied all fingers." 

Peace Societies 

Organizations for the establishment and mainte- 
nance of peace have been formed in all the great nations 
of the world. A half dozen or more of these are in- 
ternational, such as the International Bureau of Peace, 
the Conference of Societies of Allied Nations, the 
Union of International Associations, etc. 

In the United States there are the World Peace 
Foundation, the League to Enforce Peace, the American 
School Peace League, the Women's Peace Society, the 
Socialist Party of Peace, and many other smaller and 
less influential organizations. 

Great Britain has her National Peace Council, her 
Fabian Society, and her Women's Movement for Con- 
structive Peace; Australia has her Peace Alliance; 
France her General Confederation of Labor; Switzer- 
land her Swiss Committee for the Study of Principles 
of Durable Peace; Germany her German Socialists* So- 
ciety, and Holland her Dutch Anti-War Council. 

" Prattled on the Edge of a Volcano " 

One of these large, influential peace societies was 
in session in Europe when the war of 1914 broke upon 
the world so suddenly. In an hour their philosophy 
was torn to shreds. Here is a statement of the case 
by one of the American members of the society: 

" We began our sessions early in July, and for a 
month offered free advice to Europe on the subject of 
war's futility. At the end of the month Europe 
plunged into the greatest war of all history. 

" Our peace conference came to an abrupt end. 
Some of us felt very much chastened in spirit. For 
during that idyllic month when we prattled on the 



58 



A World in Perplexity 



edge of a volcano, our discussions frequently turned 
on the ' impossibility ' of a general European war. 
We pointed out that modern methods of transportation 
and communication had knit the world into one vast 
community; that modern inventions in the instruments 
of destruction had made its losses too appalling to 
be faced: and that the interlacings of commerce and 
finance were so complex that the nations could not 



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A Corps of Japan's Well-Trained Nurses Leaving for the Battl« Front 

afford to sever them. A great war, a world war, was 
absurd. It was unthinkable. It was impossible. And 
in this view we were merely voicing again what 
had been asserted in peace circles for a number of 
years. ... 

Hope Vitiates Judgment 

" Here is an instance where pacifists allowed their 
hope to vitiate their judgment. They proclaimed their 
ability to gauge contemporary history, and they made a 
total miscalculation. The impossible war came. Arma- 



Vai7i Efforts for Peace 



59 



geddon confounded the prophets. The war took most 
of us in America by surprise. . . . Many of us held a 
comfortable philosophy of social evolution — something 
to the effect that mankind was moving from a past state 
of predatory struggle, through a present state of com- 
mercial rivalry, to a future state of world co-operation. 
'* Then a preposterous thing happened." — '* The Pos- 
sible Peace," by Roland Hugins, pp. 3-6, 




© Keystone View Co. 

United States Marines Drilling at a Southern Cantonment 

Peace Leagues Not of Modern Origin 

Peace societies are not altogether of modern origin. 
Similar organizations were formed centuries ago. " The 
Peace of Westphalia," drawn up in 1648 by the nations 
that had been exhausted by the Thirty Years' War, 
made a bold stand for a lasting peace. Article I of 
the Osnabriick document declares : " There shall be a 
Christian, universal, and perpetual peace and a real 
and sincere friendship between " the nations entering 
into the treaty. But devastating wars continued. 



Vain Efforts for Peace 61 

Nearly two centuries later, nine days before the 
battle of Waterloo, the Congress of Vienna concluded 
a treaty, the sixty-third article of which reads : '' The 
confederated states engage in the same manner not 
to make war against each other, on any pretext, nor 
to pursue their differences by force of arms, but to 
submit them to the diet, which will attempt a media- 
tion by means of a commission. If this should not 
succeed, and a juridical sentence becomes necessary, 
recourse shall be had to a well-organized Austregal 
(Aiistrdgalinstanz) Court, to the decisions of which the 
contending parties are to submit without any appeal." 
— " The Map of Europe by Treaty," by Edward Herts- 
let, C, B., Vol. /, p. 248. 

This treaty was drawn up and agreed to by the 
kings of Austria, Russia, Prussia, and Denmark, and 
by such world-famed diplomats as Talleyrand, Met- 
ternich, Castlereagh, von Humboldt, and von Nessel- 
rode. This congress concluded its work the ninth day 
of June, 1815, and these illustrious sovereigns and 
statesmen returned to their several kingdoms to con- 
tinue fighting as nations have always fought, and as 
they are still fighting today. How strange, how sad, 
how humiliating it is that the efforts of the thousands 
of noble men and women who have given their best 
and highest endeavors to prevent war and to promote 
peace, have met with so little success! 

'* If Europe could exhibit so broad and liberal a 
statesmanship a century ago, why should not the in- 
tervening century, so full of progress in all the other 
essentials of civilization, have produced a statesman- 
ship that would have bound the nations of Europe, 
through their mutual interests, so closely together that 
the war of 1914 would not have been possible? This 
question may be pondered long, but in vain. The guns 
of 1914, 1915, 1916 have given a frightful demonstra- 



Vai7i Efforts for Peace 63 

tion that statesmanship and diplomacy were impotent 
in 1914. That impotence was a result of separate and 
selfish national development." — '' A Conclusive Peace/' 
by Chaiies Fremont Taylor, pp. 36, 37. 

Conflicting Peace Terms 

One of the great difficulties in maintaining peace 
among the nations is that they want peace on terms 
upon which they cannot agree — terms that will se- 
cure to each nation the advantages for which each is 
fighting. 

" Germany wants a ' lasting peace/ says the Reichs- 
tag; France, a 'beneficent peace,' says Poincare; Brit- 
ain, a * peace that will secure . . . liberty and inde- 
pendence, unthreatened by militarism,' and that ' will 
redress the cruel wrong done Belgium,' says Sir Ed- 
ward Grey. Thus they all seek true peace. 

" So they fight for peace. They will fight, they 
declare, until true peace comes. ... Is there one page 
in all history that can show that real peace among 
developed freemen has been reached in that way? Is 
there any rational analysis of human motive and life 
that can promise such a result? Is there any light 
from above that can justify such an expectation? In 
a word, is there any leaf in human experience, any 
insight or reasonable prevision that can give ground 
for the anticipation of true peace through horrible 
war? " — " The World Crisis and the Way to Peace," 
pp. 83, 85, 86, 

No Peace to the Wicked 

The real truth of the matter is, " there is no peace 
to the wicked ; " and herein is the secret of the utter 
failure of men and of nations to achieve enduring 
peace. The mental unrest and unholy ambitions inci- 
dent to sinful human nature, the avarice and over- 
reaching of the natural man, are the underlying causes 



Vai7i Efforts for Peace 



65 



of the strife that sooner or later eventuates in open 
war between states. There is no nation, no state, no 
city, on earth today that is able to keep a desirable 
and an enduring peace within its own borders. Revo- 
lutionary elements are lurking everywhere, ready to 
spring into action at any favorable moment. Like 
dangerous explosives, they go off at the first touch of 




Underwood & Underwood, N. Y. 

American Red Cross Ambulance in Long Train to Succor Wounded 

the match. And no one knows what may prove to be 
the spark that will cause the explosion. 

The enduring peace the world needs cannot be se- 
cured by war nor be maintained by armaments. A 
complete victory for one combatant and a humiliating 
defeat for the other does not destroy the spirit of war. 
Colossal armaments will not make peace, nor will dis- 
armament. " Men fought when they had no armament 
except the bow and arrow. They have fought at every 
stage of advancement up and down the line to the 
laying of the keel of the latest dreadnaught and the 
creation of the greatest gun in the world. . , . You 



66 



A World in Perplexity 



ean^ never abolish war until you change human nature, 
and only God Himself can do that." 

The Vital Factor Lacking 

In view of the long, relentless wars and bloodshed 
that have culminated in the most terrible war of all 
time, Charles Fremont Taylor has been led to say: 

" The world needs peace as it never has needed peace 
before. Civilization is threatened as it has never been 
threatened before. But peace will not save civilization 



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if it is the kind of peace that we have heretofore had 
— a truce for greater military preparation. 

" The existence of this great war tragically demon- 
strates some great need in our civilization. Some vital 
factor is absent, the supplying of which may enable 
the machinery of civilization to run smoothly, without 
the danger of an occasional ruinous disaster." — " A 
Conclusive Peace" p. 10. 

Yes, the vital factor for insuring true, lasting peace 
on earth is lacking in the natural heart of man. Until 



Vain Efforts for Peace 



67 



that is supplied, the world's desire for peace and the 
aims of world leagues of peace are all doomed to 
sorest disappointment. Why deceive ourselves longer 
with false philosophy and vain hope? Why not recog- 
nize the hard facts that have held sway through all 
the centuries? 

Back to the Bible 

There is a remedy for this terrible malady of war, 
an answer to the cry of helpless humanity, a deliver- 




'<j Underwood & Underwood, N. Y. 

Crossing a Trench 

ance from this hard bondage; but it is not by any 
means of human devising. That remedy, that answer, 
that deliverance, is found in God. It is provided in 
His purpose for the human race. And it is revealed to 
man in that inspired guidebook — the Holy Scriptures. 
We may know the remedy, the answer, and the 
deliverance, if we choose. But we shall have to turn 
to God for it. We shall have to choose His way, and 
we shall have to come back to that great Book that 
has been the li,ght_and_gm^^ in ages.past. 




THE WORD OF GOD 
Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my patli.' 



Ps. 119: 105. 



THE BIBLE MAN'S ONLY GUIDE 



A True Remedy 

It is no vain nor idle lemedy to which we refer 
men when we direct their attention to the words of 
divine inspiration. To those who know the Book of 
God best, no word of commendation in its behalf is 
needed. One who has given it diligent study has said: 
'' When I see it, I seem to hear a voice springing up 
from it, saying, 'I am the Book of God; man, read 
me. I am God's writing; open my leaf, for I was 
penned by God; read it, for He is my author.'" 

God's Word to All ihe World 

That Book speaks with the same effect to every 
race and tongue. Of this marvelous fact Henry Van 
Dyke says : 

"Born in the East, and clothed in Oriental form 
and imagery, the Bible walks the ways of all the world 
with familiar feet, and enters land after land to find 
its own everywhere. It has learned to speak in hun- 
dreds of languages to the heart of man. It comes into 

69 



70 A World in Perplexity 

the palace to tell the monarch that he is the servant 
of the Most High, and into the cottage to assure the 
peasant that he is the son of God. ... It has a word 
of peace for the time of peril, a word of comfort for 
the day of calamity, a word of light for the hour of 
darkness. . . . 

" No man is poor or desolate who has this treasure 
for his own. When the landscape darkens, and the 
trembling pilgrim comes to the valley named the 
Shadow, he is not afraid to enter; he takes the rod 
and staff of Scripture in his hand; he says to friend 
and comrade, ' Good-by, we shall meet again,' and com- 
forted by that support, he goes toward the lonely pass 
as one who climbs through darkness into light." — 
The Century Magazine. 

Authentic and Divine 

Proof of the authenticity and divine origin of the 
Bible increases as the years go by. As Guinness has 
well said: 

" Witnesses to the Bible still multiply. The mighty 
Past is speaking. God is bringing forth its testimony. 
Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, have broken the silence of 
the ages. The moldering monuments, the buried cities, 
the sandy deserts, the sculptured rocks, have found a 
voice. Sinai and Petra, Horeb and Hermon, echo the 
sacred oracles. Memphis and Tyre, Tadmor and Nine- 
veh, have risen from their graves. The painted papy- 
rus, the pictured walls, the stony tablets, the rusted 
medals and coins, bring forth their testimony. The 
ruins, the rivers, the mountains, and the seas cry out, 
' Thy word is truth.' 

" And the living witness as well as the dead. The 
Samaritan still lingers at Sychar; the Jew still wanders 
in every land. The church of Christ still lives, and 
spreads throughout the world. The gospel still regen- 




HEALING THE CENTURION'S SERVANT 
" Speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed." Matt. 8 : 8 

71 



72 A World in Perplexity 

erates. The promised Spirit still sanctifies, and wit- 
nesses in Christian heaits. In a word, history and ex- 
perience confirm the Scriptures, and assure us that 
through the prophets of the Old Testament and the 
apostles of the New, and above all through His Son, 
God Himself has spoken to our race; and that the word 
which He has spoken liveth and abideth forever." 

God's Eternal Purpose 

In God's revelation to the human race is found a 
*' guiding thread " through the dark labyrinth in which 
we wander. It connects us with God. It begins with 
the beginning, and tells of the origin of things. " In 
the beginning God created the heaven and the earth," 
is its first simple statement. It tells why God created 
the earth : " Thus saith the Lord that created the heav- 
ens; God Himself that formed the earth and made it; 
He hath established it. He created it not in vain. He 
formed it to be inhabited." Isa. 45 : 18. 

God created the earth to be inhabited, and He cre- 
ated man to inhabit it. But He did not create sinful 
men to inhabit the glorious, perfect earth that He 
formed. God is not the author of sin nor the creator 
of sinners. He " made man upright ; but they have 
sought out many inventions." Eccl. 7 : 29. 

Man found and chose another way of life than the 
one God planned for him. That other way was the 
way of sin. He turned away from the upright, right- 
eous way of God's appointment. Now we are reaping 
the sad, bitter fruit of the way of sin. Here is the root 
cause of all that now afflicts the human race. " The 
wages ot sin is death." Rom. 6 : 23. Death is the end 
of the way man chose. 

Is the purpose of God, then, forever thwarted? Has 
He planned and wrought in vain? He says. No. I 
" created it not in vain," is the emphatic, assuring word. 



The Bible Man*s Only Guide 73 

God's purpose regarding this world will ultimately 
be carried out. Then only the upright, the righteous, 
will inhabit the earth. Then the reign of sin will be 
broken, sinners will be no more, and the righteousness 
of God will cover the earth " as the waters cover the 
sea.'' Then God will make " wars to cease unto the 
end of the earth" (Ps. 46:9); and then will be ful- 
filled God's promise that none shall '* hurt nor destroy 
in all My holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of 
the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea." 
Isa. 11 : 9. 

This was God's eternal purpose regarding man and 
the earth when they were created. That purpose will be 
fulfilled, for He created them " not in vain." In this 
unfailing purpose is the remedy for the evils that afflict 
the human race today. In this we hear the answer to 
the cry of helpless humanity. When this purpose is 
fully met, as it surely will be, deliverance from this 
long, hard bondage will come. 

Thus we are able to trace God's purpose and provi- 
dence through the ages of conflict until His plan for 
the race is gloriously triumphant. 




Founded upon a Rock 




JESUS WEEPING OVER JERUSALEM 

" If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which 
belong unto thy peace!" Luke 19:42. 

74 




THE STAR OF BETHLEHEM 

I am God, . . . declaring: . . . from ancient times the things that are not 
yet done." Isa. 46: 9, 10. 



THE COMING OF THE PRINCE OF PEACE 

One of the most prominent and essential features 
in the plan for accomplishing the purpose of God, is the 
coming of His Son Jesus to this world to form contact 
and association with men. He was to come personally 
and visibly, at two different times, and in two very dif- 
ferent manifestations. One of these events has already 
taken place in the first advent of Christ, nineteen hun- 
dred years ago. Of this manifestation St. John said 
that Christ " was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and 
we beheld His glory." John 1 : 14. 

Prophecies Relating to the First Advent 

This first definite, visible appearance of Christ 
among men was foretold by the prophets of old. The 
prophet Micah named the place of His birth — Bethle- 
hem. Micah 5 : 2. Recounting the incidents of His life, 
Matthew said : " Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Ju- 

75 



76 A World in Perplexity 

dea." Matt. 2 : 1. The rejection of Christ by His own 
nation was prophesied of by Isaiah. Isa. 53: 3. Of this 
St. John declared, " He came unto His own, and His 
own received Him not." John 1 : 11. 

The prophet Daniel gave the data which located the 
years when He was to begin His public ministry and 
when He should be crucified. These events were exactly 
fulfilled. Indeed, every prophecy of the first advent was 
fully met in the birth, life, death, resurrection, and 
ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ. 

During His ministry, Jesus constantly impressed 
upon the minds of the people the important truth that 
His life. His teaching, and His miracles were a fulfil- 
ment of the words of the prophets. After His resur- 
rection He rehearsed to His disciples the principal 
events of His life, and said, '' These are the words 
which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that 
all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the 
law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, 
concerning Me." Luke 24:44, 

Thus both the Old and the New Testament bear wit- 
ness that Jesus of Nazareth is the divine Son of God, 
and that His appearance as a man. His association with 
men, and His service for man were all in accord with 
the purpose of God. 

Jesus told why He came to the world as He did at 
His first advent. He said, " The Son of man is come to 
seek and to save that which was lost." Luke 19 : 10. 
His life, death, and resurrection here, were necessary 
to redeem the world. 

Since His ascension He has been ministering His life 
for the world. Thus through the ages He has been 
gathering out a people for Himself. Millions of men 
and women have accepted Him as their Saviour and 
Redeemer. He is the hope of the world. " Neither is 
there salvation in any other: for there is none other 



The Coming of tlie Fr'mce of Peace 11 

name under heaven given among men, whereby we must 
be saved." Acts 4 : 12. 

Prophecies Relating to the Second Advent 

The Lord Jesus Christ came the first time as fore- 
told in divine prophecy, and He will come again in 
fulfilment of the purpose of God. His second coming, 
indeed, is more prominently and clearly set forth in 
the Scriptures than is His first advent. *' Enoch also, 




CHRIST'S PROMISE TO RETURN 
" I will come again, and receive you unto Myself." John 14 : 3. 

the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, 
Behold, the Lord cometh." Jude 14. 

At the time of His first advent, Christ Himself gave 
His disciples the most positive promises that He would 
come again. Here is one : " Let not your heart be trou- 
bled: ye believe in God, believe also in Me. In My 
Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, 
I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. 
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come 



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THE ASCENSION OF CHRIST 
This same Jesus . . . shall so come in like manner. 



Acts 1: 11. 



The Coming of the Pr'mee of Peace 79 

again, and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, 
there ye may be also." John 14: 1-3. 

At the time of Christ's ascension, angel messengers 
said to the disciples as they watched their departing 
Lord: 

" Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into 
heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you 
into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have 
seen Him go into heaven." Acts 1 : 11. 

To St. John, while an exile on the lonely island of 
Patmos, there was given a vision of the second coming 
of our Lord. He said, '' I looked, and behold a white 
cloud, and upon the cloud one sat like unto the Son of 
man, having on His head a golden crown, and in His 
hand a sharp sickle." Rev. 14: 14. 

Finally the Word of God, that great revelation of 
God's eternal purposes, closes with these assuring, com- 
forting words, '' He which testifieth these things saith, 
Surely I come quicklj^" Rev. 22 : 20. 

From the day that Christ ascended from Mount 
Olivet to this hour, His most devout followers have be- 
lieved and taught the doctrine of the second advent, 
based not only upon His own promise, but upon the 
prophetic scriptures. The apostle Paul said, *' Unto 
them that look for Him shall He appear the second 
time." Heb. 9:28. 

No Hope Except in Christ's Return 

Richard Baxter, that devout, earnest preacher of the 
gospel and lover of mankind, left this testimony to his 
faith in the second advent: 

** The most glorious coming and appearance of the 
Son of God may well be reckoned into His people's glory. 
For their sake He came into the world, suffered, died, 
rose, ascended, and for their sake it is that He will 
return. To this end will Christ come again to receive 



80 A World in Per-plexity 

His people unto Himself, that where He is, there they 
may be also. 

'' The bridegroom's departure was not upon divorce. 
He did not leave us with a purpose to return no more. 
He hath left pledges enough to assure us of the con- 
trary. We have His word, His many promises, His 
sacraments, which show forth His death till He come; 
and His Spirit, to direct, sanctify, and comfort, till He 
return. We have frequent tokens of love from Him, to 
show us He forgets not His promise, nor us. 

''We daily behold the forerunners of His coming 
foretold by Himself. We see the fig tree putting forth 
leaves, and therefore know that summer is nigh. 
Though the riotous would say, ' My Lord delayeth His 
coming ; ' yet let the saints lift up their heads, for 
their redemption draweth nigh. Alas, fellow Christians, 
what should we do if our Lord should not return? 
What a case are we left in! What! leave us in the 
midst of wolves, and among lions, a generation of 
vipers, and here forget us! Did He buy us so dear, 
and then leave us sinning, suffering, groaning, dying 
daily; and will He come no more to us? It cannot be. 
This is like our unkind dealing with Christ, who, when 
we feel ourselves warm in the world, care not for com- 
ing to Him; but this is not like Christ's dealing with us. 
He that would come to suffer, will surely come to tri- 
umph. He that would come to purchase, will surely 
come to possess. Where else were all our hopes? What 
were become of our faith, our prayers, our tears, and 
our waiting? What were all the patience of the saints 
worth to them? Were we not left of all men the most 
miserable? Christians, hath Christ made us forsake all 
the world, and be forsaken of all the world? to hate 
all, and be hated of all? and all this for Him, that we 
might have Him instead of all? And will He, think you, 
after all this, forget us, and forsake us Himself? Far 



The Coming of the Prince of Peace 81 

be such a thought from our hearts ! " — " The Saint's 
Rest," abridged by Benjamin Fawcett, pp. 40, 41, Pub- 
lished by H. Coivperthwait, Philadelphia, 1828. 

It is inconsistent to believe that Jesus has been here 
as foretold by prophets and witnessed to by apostles, 
without believing also that He will come again. The 
authority we have for believing that He has been here 
is authority for believing that He will come again. The 
predictions regarding His second coming are more nu- 
merous and more full and clear as to detail than are 
those which foretold His first advent. 

The Grand Climax of the Gospel 

The second coming of Christ will be the greatest 
event of all time. It will bring the grand climax of 
the everlasting gospel. It w'll bring the glorious con- 
summation of the hope of the church in all ages. It 
will bring to an end the cruel reign of sin. It will 
make to cease forever all the afflictions of this groaning 
creation. 

Surely an event of such inexpressible meaning to 
the universe ought to arrest the attention of men. It 
should receive the heartiest and most enthusiastic de- 
votion that Christ's followers can possibly give it. 
Every heart should rejoice in the blessed prospect of 
soon meeting Him who is " the chiefest among ten thou- 
sand, the one altogether lovely." The whole life of 
every believer should clearly and earnestly proclaim to 
the world that Jesus is coming again. 




ON THE WAY TO EMMAUS 

Be^inningr at Moses and all the prophets. He expounded unto them 
Scriptures the things concerning: Himself." Luke 24 : 27, 

82 



in all the 



'l^raiS.-T 





DANIEL INTERPRETING NEBUCHADNEZZAR'S DREAM 
' There is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets." Dan. 2 : 28. 



WORLD PROBLEMS IN THE LIGHT 
OF PROPHECY 



There are good and sufficient reasons why men 
should turn to the prophecies of the Bible for infor- 
mation in this day of perplexity. The Bible abounds 
in prophecy. . Prophetic declarations are to be found in 
almost every book from Genesis to the Revelation. 
Some books contain little else than prophecy. The books 
of Daniel and the Revelation are of this class. 

Prophecy is a " declaration of something to come ; 
a foretelling; a prediction; especially an inspired fore- 
telHng." It is a lifting of the veil, an opening to view 
of the future. 

The Value of Prophecy 

The character, the purpose, and the value of proph- 
ecy are set forth in the following excellent statements 
by Dr. James Frederick McCurdy: 



84 A World in Perpletdty 

'' Hebrew prophecy is not merely the illuminator of 
Hebrew history alone, ... Its torch even sends out a 
light here and there over the great world of humanity 
— a beam in darkness which had grown to be a light 
unto the Gentiles, the harbinger of Him who was to 
come as the Light of the world. . . . 

" How differently the philosophical historian and the 
Hebrew prophet approach and interpret the problems of 
individual and national life! . . . The Hebrew prophetic 
mind ignores logic ; it even disdains speculation. It 
does not infer; it simply seems to see. It does not walk 
from step to step of significant facts; it flies to conclu- 
sions of which no man sees the antecedent stages. It is 
like one of its own heroes v/hen it describes him as 
moving at his ease in a course * which he does not 
traverse with his feet.' It bridges over with the certi- 
tude of faith the interval between the present struggle 
of doubt and the future assured triumph. It deals only 
with subjective certainties, which the slow fulfilment of 
history makes objectively real. It idealizes the possi- 
bilities of humanity, and thus helps to make them prac- 
tically true. It promises good, and thus helps to bring 
it within the reach of men. It assumes eternal princi- 
ples of right, and thus tends to realize them in human 
character and conduct. In its flight over nations and 
communities, it bears a message * knit below the wild 
pulsation of its wings ; ' and what it tells us is that the 
great motives urging on the forces of human history 
are Truth and Freedom. ... 

Relation of History to Prophecy 

" History is the fulfilment of prophecy as the fin- 
ished statue or painting is the fulfilment of the artist's 
dream, with the superadded details of toil and circum- 
stance. If God rules the world, then the actual must 
be the slow but sure fulfilment of His ideal. And His 



World Problems in the Light of Prophecij 85 

ideal, if any of His votaries has caught it at all, has 
been caught by the Hebrew prophets. It is their visions 
and none other that are being fulfilled in the moral 
progress of our race. The visions of the prophets are 
truer for us than the half-learned incidents of history, 
because they herald the fixed and necessary issues to 
which human events and actions tend to their zigzag 
and uncertain course. Moreover, the prophetic ideal is 
a living force which assures its own fulfilment. Proph- 
ecy is thus not merely the interpreter and the forerun- 
ner of history, but also its guide and its goal. If there 
is anything fortuitous, it is the fate of men and nations. 
If there is anything certain, it is the progress of the 
prophetic ideal." — " History, Prophecy, and the Monu- 
ments," pp. 13, 14, 431. 

In the books of Daniel and the Revelation there are 
recorded long lines of prophecy which foretell many of 
the principal events of the world's history from six 
hundred years before Christ to the end of time. These 
lines of prophecy, which show the work and the posi- 
tion of one nation after another in the stream of time, 
are of great value to mankind. That some do not see 
this value does not affect the question. The blind do 
not see the sun, yet that great luminary keeps steadily 
to its purpose — giving the world its light and heat. 
The blind sustain the loss of the light. So with those 
who are blind regarding the prophetic light. 

The Certainty of Prophecy 

The apostle Peter admonishes all to take heed to the 
prophecies of the Bible. He says: *' We have also a 
more sure word of prophecy ; whereunto ye do well that 
ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark 
place." 2 Peter 1 : 19. In the statements preceding this 
the apostle gives unmistakable evidence that Christ is 
the Son of God. He tells of the scene on the mount of 



86 A World in Perplexity 

transfiguration, and said that he was an eyewitness of 
Christ's glory, and that he heard the voice of God 
which came from heaven, saying, " This is My beloved 
Son, in whom I am well pleased." Verse 17. 

Then he adds, *' We have also [in addition to the 
evidence of eyesight] a more sure word of prophecy." 
He refers to the prophecies of the Old Testament that 
foretell the time, place, and manner of the first advent 
of Christ, and says these prophecies, as fulfilled by 
Christ, are " more sure," bear stronger testimony, than 
any other evidence. He then adds, " Whereunto ye do 
well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in 
a dark place." A light in a dark place is to show n^ 
where we are, and to guide us in the way we ought to 
go. The prophecies, likewise, are to show men and 
women where they are in the world's history, and to 
guide them through the dark labyrinths of danger. 
Those who set the prophecies aside as of little value 
suffer great loss. They are like a man who would close 
his eyes to the light of the sun. 

God the Author of Prophecy 

Man may trace the events of time after they have 
occurred, but only the Infinite One can portray those 
same events before they take place. The prophet, in- 
spired and instructed by the living God, writes proph- 
ecy; the historian, taught in the schools of men, writes 
history. The prophet foretells what is to come to pass 
in the future; the historian records what has been in 
the past. 

The general course of world history is a fulfilment 
of Bible prophecy. The history that records the fulfil- 
ment of prophecy is of the greatest value to man, for 
it sheds clear light upon his pathway. It serves as a 
guide-board on the journey of life. 




THE GREAT IMAGE OF DANIEL 2 

He that revealeth secrets maketh known to thee what shall 
come to pass." Dan. 2 : ^y. 



S7 



88 A World in Perplexity 

The Prophecy of Daniel 2 

In the second chapter of Daniel, the prophet gives 
a brief outline of the history of the world from six hun- 
dred years before Christ to the close of human history. 
Daniel had been taken a captive from Jerusalem to 
Babylon by King Nebuchadnezzar. The main points or 
connecting links in the succession of empires and king- 
doms were revealed to this captive in Babylon, and he 
gave the outline to the king, and it was recorded in 
the Book of God for subsequent generations. 

This outline was given first to the king and then to 
Daniel in the form of a great image. '* This image's 
head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver, 
his belly and his thighs of brass, his legs of iron, his 
feet part of iron and part of clay." The interpretation 
given by the prophet is this : " Thou, king, art a king 
of kings. . . . Thou art this head of gold." Dan. 2: 
32, 33, 37, 38. 

This brief statement furnishes the key to the outline. 
The metallic parts of the image represented kingdoms. 
The head of gold represented the kingdom over which 
Nebuchadnezzar reigned — Babylon. 

" After thee," said the prophet, '' shall arise another 
kingdom inferior to thee, and another third kingdom of 
brass, which shall bear rule over all the earth. And 
the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron." Verses 
39, 40. 

Including Babylon, four world-empires are brought 
to view in this prophecy. And this is precisely what 
history records, — Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, Rome. 

Rome's Division into Ten Kingdoms 

Of the iron kingdom, Rome, the prophecy says: 
" Whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of pot- 
ters' clay, and part of iron, the kingdom shall be di- 
vided." Verse 41. This was what became of the Roman 



World Problems in the Light of Prophecy 89 

Empire. Instead of being succeeded by a fifth world- 
empire, Rome was divided, and ten kingdoms were built 
up on its ruins. This was all accomplished within five 
centuries after Christ. 

The ruin of Rome was to be permanent, and the 
division into a number of kingdoms was to be perma- 
nent, for the prophecy says : " Whereas thou sawest iron 
mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with 
the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to an- 
other, even as iron is not mixed with clay." Verse 43. 
And thus it has been and still remains. These king- 
doms have never been welded into one world-kingdom 
such as those which preceded them. Great rulers have 
wanted to unite them, and have done their best to bind 
them into one. Napoleon tried it, but failed. Instead 
of ending his career on the throne of a great European 
Empire, as he dreamed he would, he ended it a prisoner 
of war in exile on the lonely island of St. Helena. These 
kingdoms are still divided, with no prospect of their 
being united into one empire. 

A wonderful prophecy! Today, after two thousand 
five hundred years, every word relating to these king- 
doms has come true. We know this, for we have the 
authentic history of the past, and today we are looking 
at the present frightful strife among these kingdoms, 
of which it was written twenty-five hundred years ago, 
" They shall not cleave one to another." 

The Everlasting Kingdom of Peace 

But the prophecy does not close with earthly king- 
doms. It leaps over the boundary of time, and takes us 
on into eternity : " In the days of these kings shall the 
God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be 
destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other 
people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these 
kingdoms, and it shall stand forever." Verse 44. 



90 A World in Perplexity 

This prediction of the estabhshment of God's king- 
dom is not yet fulfilled. The earthly kingdoms are still 
here, fighting unto the death. But they will not remain 
here forever and continue the slaughter. They are to 
give place to a better kingdom — the kingdom of our 
Lord Jesus Christ. He is the " Prince of Peace," upon 
whose shoulders the prophet Isaiah said the government 
of this world will finally be placed. Isa. 9 : 6. 

Man's government of man has been a dismal failure. 
The history of the world is truly a sad record. Op- 
pression and intrigue, unrest and turmoil, revolution 
and war, death and mourning, — these have made black 
and terrible the records of the past. 

But this manner of government is to end. The gov- 
ernment of the world is to be taken out of the hands 
of men, and placed upon the shoulders of the Prince of 
Peace. Then the world will have peace — just, right- 
eous, enduring peace. 

Of a truth, this is the time and the way that the 
peace of the world will be established. Let us not be 
deceived by a false hope, by expectations that can never 
be realized. The world has never known true, lasting 
peace since the reign of sin began. It never will know 
true peace until the reign of sin shall end. 

The Prophecy of Daniel 7 

In other prophecies Daniel goes over the same 
ground, giving more details regarding the closing part 
of the world's history. The prophecy of the seventh 
chapter outlines very clearly the division of the Roman 
Empire into ten kingdom.s, as represented by the ten 
horns of the vision. But it does not stop with world 
affairs at the time of this division, as the second chap- 
ter does. It sweeps down the Christian era to the time 
when the supremacy of the Papacy was to be taken 
away. 



World Problems in the Light of Prophecy 91 

The 1260 Years of Papal Supremacy 

Mark the accuracy of the answer of history to proph- 
ecy. The prophet foretold the rise and development of 
the Papacy with the same directness and assurance that 
he outlined the history of empires. He gave the period 
of time the Papacy would hold its supreme place among 
the nations — 1260 years. This supremacy was estab- 
lished 533-538 A. D. Adding 1260 years, we are brought 
to 1793-98 A. D. At this very time the supremacy of 
the Papacy was taken away by events connected with 
the French Revolution. 

With this event, and at this time, the prophecy 
closes with this prediction : " The kingdom and domin- 
ion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole 
heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the 
Most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, 
and all dominions shall serve and obey Him." Dan. 
7 : 27. Here again the assurance is given that this 
world is to be taken over by the Lord Jesus Christ, and 
that His saints, the people He is redeeming by the gospel 
of salvation, will be the subjects of His kingdom. This 
prophecy closes with the same glorious event that marks 
the close of the prophecy of the second chapter. 

These predictions of Daniel 2 and 7 agree with many 
other lines of Bible prophecy that terminate in this 
stirring time in which we live, — " the time of the end." 

The Link That Connects Time with Eternity 

According to the " sure word of prophecy," we have 
come to the last days of human history. We have 
reached the link in every line of gospel prophecy that 
connects time with eternity. That is to say, every pre- 
diction of every event, save the very last one, in every 
line of prophecy, is in the past, or is being rapidly ful- 
filled, and we are now witnessing the last terrible acts 
of the drama of this world. 




Photo, Boston Photo News Co. 



Turkish Boy Scouts 



THE EASTERN QUESTION 

It is claimed by many of the ablest writers on pres- 
ent-day political and historical problems, that the great 
war which broke upon the world in 1914 is a continua- 
tion of the struggles of the European nations over what 
has long since been known as the Eastern Question. 
Dr. Marriott, in his monumental work of 1917 on the 
Eastern Question, says: 

" The Near Eastern Question may be defined as the 
problem of filling up the vacuum created by the grad- 
ual disappearance of the Turkish Empire from Europe." 
" Once more the problem of the Near East, still un- 
solved, apparently insoluble, had involved the world in 
war." " In an unsolved Eastern Question the origin of 
the war is to be found." — " The Eastern Question/' pp, 
3, 426, 444. 

Professor Seymour, of Yala, makes the following 
statement regarding the Eastern Question: 

9^ 



94 A Woiid in Perplexity 

" In the sense in which the term is generally used, 
it means the problem or group of problems that result 
from the occupation of Constantinople and the Balkan 
Peninsula by the Turks." — '' The Diplomatic Back- 
ground of the War/' p. 195, 

The Prophecy of Daniel 11 

Some of the most careful, thorough students of Bible 
prophecy believe that the world-conflicts over the 
Eastern Question are foretold in the prophecies of both 
Daniel and the Revelation. And believing this, these 
Bible students feel assured that the mighty conflict now 
staggering the world comes within the range of the 
prophetic outlines. 

The eleventh chapter of Daniel records a remarkable 
prophecy covering the period of world-history from the 
Persian Empire to the second coming of Christ. This 
outline is given in plain language, without figures or 
symbols. Beginning with the Persian Empire, in the 
third year of Cyrus, the prophecy foretells the triumph 
of Alexander's forces over the Persians. It foretells the 
division of Alexander's empire into four parts, the rise 
and fall of the Western Roman Empire, and also the 
rise of the Papacy and its period of dominance over 
the saints and laws of the Most High, ending with its 
temporary overthrow in 1798. 

According to the prophecy, within a few years after 
the death of Alexander, his empire was divided " toward 
the four winds of heaven," north, south, east, and west; 
that is, it was divided into four kingdoms. A little later 
still we find, in harmony with the prophetic outline, only 
two of the four divisions remaining as independent na- 
tions, — the northern, or Syrian kingdom, ruled by the 
Seleucidse; and the southern division, or Egypt, under 
the Ptolemies; these two divisions being styled in the 



The Eastern Question 95 

book of Daniel '' the king of the north " and " the king 
of the south." 

The Eastern Question, it is believed, is brought into 
the prophecy in verse 40 by the prediction that at the 
time of the end there would be a conflict between the 
kings of the South and of the North, and a third power, 
which apparently would be an invader. The time of 
the end began in 1798. The king of the South was still 
Egypt. The king of the North was then Turkey. This 
we know by the details given in the early part of the 
prophecy. 

In the year 1798 France invaded Egypt. Napoleon 
led an expedition of forty thousand soldiers. Egypt 
was taken completely by surprise. Having no time for 
preparation, she was unable to offer serious resistance, 
and in a short time Napoleon was master, and Egypt 
passed under the rule of France. 

Believing that Napoleon's next move would be to 
march toward Constantinople, Turkey declared war on 
France in September, 1798. Napoleon accepted the chal- 
lenge, and immediately invaded the Turkish territory. 
Everything fell before the French as they marched 
through Palestine along the Mediterranean coast, until 
they reached St. Jean d'Acre, just north of Mt. Carmel. 
Here the resistance of the Turks, ably supported by the 
English, was so powerful that Napoleon suffered the 
first great defeat in his career. With his weakened and 
shattered army he began his retreat to Egypt. He 
was pursued and harassed by the victorious Turks, who 
succeeded in retaking Palestine and wresting from the 
French the whole of the land of the Ptolemies. From 
this time on for a quarter of a century Turkey won his 
greatest victories in Palestine and Northern Africa. 
The prophecy declared that in this conflict Turkey would 
strengthen his position in Palestine, conquer Egypt, 
Ethiopia, and Libya, and obtain power over the treas- 



96 A World in Perplexity 

ures of all these countries. This was all strikingly 
fulfilled. 

But Turkey was not long to enjoy these conquests. 
*' Tidings out of the east and out of the north shall 
trouble him: therefore he shall go forth with great fury 
to destroy, and utterly to make away many." Verse 44. 
This trouble began when Russia's declaration of war 
against Turkey came down from the north to the sultan 
at Constantinople in 1827. Turkey went forth with 
fury to destroy, but suffered serious defeat, sued for 
peace, and finally signed a humiliating treaty. In all 
his wars since, Turkey has never won a substantial 
victory. On the other hand, the disintegration of his 
empire has gone steadily and surely on until he has 
lost all his possessions in Africa, and all in Europe 
save the city of Constantinople and a small strip of 
territory called the backyard of the city. 

Two Specifications Not Yet Fulfilled 

There are but two specifications of this long proph- 
ecy not already fulfilled. They are given in the last 
verse of the chapter : ** He shall plant the tabernacles 
of his palace between the seas in the glorious holy 
mountain; yet he shall come to his end, and none shall 
help him." Verse 45. 

These predictions seem as plain and simple as words 
can make them. This power, called the king of the 
North, that was to enter upon a deadly conflict at " the 
time of the end " (1798), and was to be victorious in de- 
feating the enemy and extending his conquests over the 
glorious Holy Land, and over Egypt, Libya, and Ethi- 
opia; this power that was to be plunged into sore trou- 
ble in the North and East, after his great victories in 
the South, is now to establish his palace in the glorious 
holy mountain, and there come to his end. That power 
is Turkey. 



TJie Eastern Question 97 

The Glorious Holy Mountain 

The palace, it is believed, stands for the headquar- 
ters of the ruler — his capital or seat of government. 
What are the indications that Turkey's capital is likely 
to be removed from the city of Constantinople in Eu- 
rope? They are certainly clear and abundant. It is 
safe to say that the whole world, including the Turks 
themselves, are expecting this. Whether the Allies or 
the Central Powers win this war, Turkey must ulti- 
mately leave his present capital, Constantinople. Where 
will he go? Where can he go and establish another 
capital? He can go to his Asiatic territory, and no- 
where else. And once there, the most likely city, and 
the most cherished city, for his capital is Jerusalem. 
This is the " glorious holy mountain " of the Scriptures. 
'* Lord, according to all Thy righteousness, I beseech 
Thee, let Thine anger and Thy fury be turned away 
from Thy city Jerusalem, the holy mountain." Dan. 
9 : 16. The prophecy will be fulfilled. 

He Shall Come to His End 

*' Yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help 
him." This is Turkey's destiny, and he is on the road 
with rapid strides. How soon he may cross into Asia 
none can say. How soon he will reach Jerusalem after 
leaving Europe, no man can tell. How long he will 
remain in Jerusalem before coming to his end, we do 
not know. The prophecy does not enter into these de- 
tails. But it does give the two great outstanding events 
— removal to Jerusalem and the end. 

Present Developments in Palestine 

The fact that the British forces have recently taken 
Jerusalem from the Turks may not in the end present 
any serious obstacle to the fulfilment of this interpreta- 
tion of the prophecy. The settlement of a hundred com- 
plex problems will follow the war, even if not directly 



98 



A World in Perplexity 




(T) Underwood & Undci'wood, N. Y. 

THE MOSQUE OF OMAR 
Situated on the Site of Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem 

settled by it. It is generally understood that Turkey 
must leave Europe. Of course he must have territory. 
Twenty million Turks will not be exterminated. If left 
on earth, they must have quarters and headquarters. 
There stands the declaration of the prophet. If the 
interpretation of the prophecy here given is correct, — 
and who can gainsay it? — the Turkish capital will 
eventually be planted in Jerusalem. The whole proph- 
ecy, covering two thousand five hundred years, save 



The Eastern Question 



99 




© Keystone View C 

THE JEWS' WAILING PLACE 
A Section of the Ancient Outer Wall of Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem 

these two unfulfilled specifications, has come to pass 
exactly as outlined. The rest cannot fail; and not only 
the prophecy itself but the temper of the times, indicate 
that the closing events will be rapid ones. 

The Standing Up of Michael 

But the significance of all this lies in the great event 
to take place when Turkey comes to his end. It is this : 
" At that time shall Michael stand up, the great Prince 



100 



A World in Perplexity 



which standeth for the children of thy people : and there 
shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there 
was a nation even to that same time: and at that time 
thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be 
found written in the book." Dan. 12 : 1. 

Here is a prediction of events of transcendent inter- 
est Michael, the great Prince, is to stand up; there 



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Photo, Boston Photo News Cn. 

A Picture of Extreme Poverty in Armenia 

will be a time of trouble such as never was since there 
was a nation; the people of God shall be delivered. 

First, Michael shall stand up. Michael is none other 
than the Son of God. In Jude 9 He is called " the Arch- 
angel." In First Thessalonians 4 : 16 the Archangel is 
called " the Lord Himself," the one whose voice raises 
the dead at the resurrection. In John 5:25 it is de- 
clared that it is the voice of " the Son of God " that 



The Eastern Question 101 

will raise the dead. Therefore, Michael is the Lard 
Jesus Christ. 

That the standing up of Michael is the beginning 
of His reign as king, seems evident from the Scriptures. 
In Daniel 11:3 we read : '' A mighty king shall stand 
up, that shall rule with great dominion, and do accord- 
ing to His will." To " stand up " in this scripture phrase 
means to rule, and to rule is to reign. 

The Significance of the Downfall of Turkey 

The meaning of all this is that the downfall, the 
utter ruin, of Turkey and the beginning of the eternal 
reign of Christ are inseparably connected in point of 
time. It is this that gives significance to the disinte- 
gration of Turkey, which the world has been witnessing 
for a hundred years. 

This is not to say that movements pointing to the 
final destruction of Turkey are the only national events 
of significance. Far from it. Turkey is singled out 
because he holds the territory which is the storm-center 
of the last great conflict of the warring nations. It is at 
this storm-center that the mighty issues between the 
war-maddened nations will be fought to a finish. This 
will be the Armageddon so clearly foretold by St. John 
in the Revelation, chapter 16 : 12-14. In that great bat- 
tle of Armageddon all the nations will come to their end. 
It may be that Turkey will come to his end at the same 
time and in the same way as all the rest. It is then 
that a voice will be heard saying, " The kingdoms of this 
world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of His 
Christ; and He shall reign forever and ever." Rev. 
11: 15. 




CHRIST ANSWERING HIS DISCIPLES' QUESTIONS 
When shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of Thy coming, and of 



the end of the world? " Matt. 24: 3. 



102 




Signs in the Heavens 



SIGNS OF CHRISrS COMING 

A COMPREHENSIVE prophecy, perhaps the most de- 
tailed in the Bible relating to the second coming of 
Christ and the end of the world, is that recorded in the 
twenty-fourth chapter of Matthew and the twenty-first 
chapter of Luke, sometimes called our Lord's great 
prophecy. Believing the promise that Jesus would come 
again, the disciples went to Him privately and asked, 
" What shall be the sign of Thy coming, and of the end 
of the world?" Matt. 24: 3. 

The Master gave an extended answer. He stated 
that there would be signs, and that they would be seen 
in the heavens and upon the earth. The signs in the 
heavens would be the darkening of the sun and moon, 
and the falling of the stars. The signs on the earth 
would be, as we have seen, the rise of nation against 
nation and kingdom against kingdom, causing '* distress 
of nations, with perplexity; . . . men's hearts failing 
them for fear, and for looking after those things which 
are coming on the earth." Luke 21 : 25, 26. Jesus also 

103 



104 A World in Perplexity 

declared, " This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached 
in all the world for a witness unto all nations ; and then 
shall the end come." Matt. 24 : 14. 

Every one of these signs has either come to pass or 
is now being speedily fulfilled. 

The Darkening of the Sun 

There was a remarkable darkening of the sun May 
19, 1780. Of this event Webster's Unabridged Diction- 
ary (edition 1883) says: 

" The Dark Day, May 19, 1780, so called on account 
of a remarkable darkness on that day extending over all 
New England. . . . The obscuration began about ten 
o'clock in the morning, and continued till the middle of 
the next night, but with difference of degree and du- 
ration in different places. . . . The true cause of this 
remarkable phenomenon is not known." 

Of the night following, a writer in the Boston Ga- 
zette and Country Journal says: 

" Perhaps it never was darker since the children of 
Israel left the house of bondage. This gross darkness 
held till about one o'clock, although the moon had fulled 
but the day before." 

Regarding the cause. Dr. Samuel Stearns affirms: 

" That the darkness was not caused by an eclipse is 
manifest by the various positions of the planets of our 
system at that time; for the moon was more than one 
hundred and fifty degrees from the sun all that day. . . . 

" The primary cause must be imputed to Him that 
walketh through the circuit of heaven, who stretcheth 
out the heaven 'ike a curtain, who maketh the clouds 
his chariot, who walketh upon the wings of the wind." 

The Falling Stars 

The prediction regarding the falling of the stars was 
fulfilled later. 



Signs of Christ's Coming 105 

" On the night of November 12-13, 1833, a tempest 
of falling stars broke over the earth. North America 
bore the brunt of its pelting. From the Gulf of Mexico 
to Halifax, until daylight with some difficulty put an 
end to the display, the sky was scored in every direc- 
tion with shining tracks and illuminated with majestic 
fireballs." — '' History of Astronomy in the Nineteenth 
Century/' by Clerke, p. 329. 

" Considered as one of the rare and wonderful dis- 
plays of the Creator's preserving care, as well as the 
terrible magnitude and power of His agencies, it is not 
meet that such occurrences as those of November 13 
should leave no more solid and permanent effect upon 
the human mind than the impression of a splendid 
scene." — American Journal of Science. 

'* No philosopher or scholar has told or recorded an 
event like that of yesterday morning. A prophet 
eighteen hundred years ago foretold it exactly, if we 
will be at the trouble of understanding stars falling 
to mean falling stars." — Neiv York Journal of Com- 
merce, Nov. 14, 1833. 

The marvel is, not that such a meteoric shower 
occurred, but that Jesus Christ, eighteen centuries be- 
fore the event, placed it in its true relation to the 
lines of prophecy which are being fulfilled in this 
'' time of the end." 

Celestial bodies are located in the heavens. Man 
can have no influence or control whatever over them. 
They are under the supreme control of Him who cre- 
ated and upholds them by the word of His power. It 
is, therefore, specially fitting that through them He 
should speak to the children of men, warning the im- 
penitent of coming judgments, and keeping alive in the 
hearts of His obedient people the hope of their long- 
promised deliverance. 




CHRIST IN THE PRISON CAMP 

Pointing the Way to True Liberty and Peace. Painted by an artist-soldier in 

Siberia, and brought to America by a Y. M. C. A. worker. 

106 




Photc. 



a & u 



•wood, N. Y. 
A Bread Line in Petrosrrad 



"DISTRESS OF NATIONS, WITH 
PERPLEXITY" 

Besides the signs in the heavens, there were to 
be signs on the earth. The nations and kingdoms were 
to wage deadly warfare against one another. Strife, 
tumult, and revolution were to be so fierce and so uni- 
versal that the nations of earth would be plunged int:) 
the greatest " distress " and " perplexity.^' So dark 
and desperate was the situation to become that men's 
hearts would fail them " for fear, and for looking after 
those things which are coming on the earth." Luke 
21:26. See also Matt. 24:6, 7; Luke 21:10, 11, 25. 

This prediction is surely being strikingly fulfilled 
just now. The world is at war. Seven eighths of all 
the people on the earth have been drawn into this 
maelstrom of destruction. Five governments have been 
overthrown, and their rulers and cabinets are in exile. 
Revolution has torn Russia to pieces. The czar and 
his family, if still living, are prisoners in Siberia. 

107 



108 A World in Perplexity 

Nearly two hundred million people in what was only 
a short time ago a mighty empire, are now practically 
without government, law, order, or safety. The men 
of experience, education, and wealth are being ruth- 
lessly slaughtered, while the institutions of the country 
are wrecked. 

In China, four hundred millions of poor, distracted, 
helpless people are without stable government. Owing 
to repeated uprisings and revolutions, the president 
and his cabinet confess their inability to control the 
situation. The king and queen of Greece have been 
deposed and exiled. Cabinet after cabinet in nearly 
all the warring countries has fallen since this war 
began, because unable to command the confidence of 
the people. Industrial conflicts are growing more fre- 
quent and bitter each day. Food, fuel, and clothing 
are served out to multiplied millions of men, women, 
and children in the smallest possible quantities neces- 
sary to sustain life and prevent cruel exposure. Mil- 
lions who have no means of support are being kept 
alive by gifts from strangers in distant lands, whose 
tender sympathies for the suffering move them to share 
their bounties with their less fortunate fellow men. 
Other millions, it is too sad to relate, are dying of ex- 
posure and starvation. And then the heart sorrow and 
suffering and despair in millions of homes — who can 
measure it? 

" Upon the earth," said the Master, there shall be 
" distress of nations, with perplexity, . . . men's hearts 
failing them for fear, and for looking after those things 
which are coming on the earth.** Luke 21 : 25, 26. 

Could any description be truer of conditions in the 
world today? This is surely a distraught world, — dis- 
tress, accompanied by perplexity; distress made harder 
and more unbearable because to human sight the fu- 
ture holds little or no hope of relief. The description 



Distress of Nations, ivith Perplexity 109 

given by Jesus of Nazareth nineteen hundred years 
ago of the distressed, perplexed world situation today, 
is amply supported by men who are face to face with 
these acute conditions. Dr. Butler says: 

" The wild onrush of events in a world at war ; the 
sudden and startling changes in finance, in commerce, 
in industry; the quick movement of armies and of 
navies by which some of the hopes and ambitions 
of two generations are gratified ; the dazed perplexity of 
the world's most trusted leaders, — all these are char- 
acteristic of the days through which we are living." 
— '* A World in Ferment,'' p. 88. 

Another writer says : '' It is a strange state of mind, 
this present. It is a confusion and welter of thought 
as well as a welter of strife." ** What means this 
strange bewilderment? more striking than memory re- 
cords. Men know not what to think. They are dumb 
with confusion." — " The World Crisis and the Way to 
Peace/' in:>> 86, 20, 21. 

Crossing the Watershed of Civilization 

How serious, how fatal, how utterly ruinous to the 
whole world, this terrible struggle may prove to be, 
is suggested by the author of '* A World in Ferment." 
He says: 

" No one dares predict just what the end of this 
world war will be or when that end will come. It is 
possible, of course, that this cataclysm marks the end 
of centuries of progress, and it is possible that man 
in 1914 crossed over the watershed of civilization, 
and is now to descend on the other side toward stead- 
ily growing barbarism and the steadily extending rule 
of force. That, I say, is possible."— Pa(7c 98. 

Lord Northcliffe, one of England's greatest pub- 
lishers and most accurate readers of present-day con- 
ditions, has said: 



110 A World in Perplexity 

" The word ' peace ' has disappeared from the Eng- 
lish vocabulary. That is a deep, underlying conviction 
in the very hearts of the people who do not want peace 
and will not listen to any talk of peace until this war 
is fought to a finish. 

" This is no ordinary war which can be brought to 
an end suddenly by one campaign, or one great victory, 
or any series of decisive events in any one field. 

*' Instead of ending soon or suddenly, the war is more 
likely to go on and on, and then gradually abate by 
slow processes, here and there, as localities pass through 
their ordeal and emerge with a wish to take a breath- 
ing spell." 

These unparalleled conditions are causing changes 
everywhere. Inventories of the things of this present 
world are being revised; values are depreciating. Men 
are finding that this world does not meet the highest, 
noblest, innermost longings of the heart. The editor 
of Leslie's says: 

"It is a sobered world. Engulfed in war, nation 
nfter nation has been swept by the terrible tide of 
destruction. Neither hemisphere has escaped. Armies 
march in Europe, Asia, and Africa. No seas are with- 
out their mines, their battleships and submarines. All 
skies are speckled with armored aircraft. ... Is it 
surprising that some are inquiring if the end of all 
things is not approaching? The world may well be 
sobered by the thought." — Leslie's Illustrated Weekly 
Newspaper, March 1, 1917. 

The Washington Post of Jan. 30, 1916, reports Sir 
David Beatty, admiral of the British fleet, as saying: 

" Surely, Almighty God does not intend this war 
to be just a hideous fracas or a blood-drunken orgy. 
There must be a purpose in it; improvement must come 
out of it. . . . England still remains to be taken out 
of the stupor of self-satisfaction and complacency in 



Distress of Satlons, with Perplexitu 111 

which her flourishing condition has steeped her. Until 
she can be stirred out of this condition, until a re- 
ligious revival takes place, just so long will the war 
continue. When she can look on the future with hum- 
bler ej^es and a prayer on her lips, then we can begin 
to count the days toward the end.'' 

A remarkable statement this, concerning his own 
country. But the admiral gives counsel that not only 
England, but all the world, will do well to lay seriously 
to heart. And many are taking the situation seriously, 
as witnessed by the editor of the Newburg (New^ York) 
Daily Journal, who says: 

" The mental condition caused among Americans 
by the w^ar in Europe is interesting. One finds many 
persons in all places who believe the world is nearing 
its end. Such persons are by no means cranks. Many 
are careful students of history as well as of the Bible, 
and some of them have figured the prophecies of Daniel 
down to a point v^here they feel sure, not only of the 
approach of the grand collapse, but of the identity of 
the principal characters who are to be conspicuous in 
the last days. One meets persons holding such views 
on the trains, in the banks, everywhere; and if one 
considers them sensible in all other things, they can 
hardly be regarded as lunatics in this. The religious 
faith of many persons calls for a grand breakdown of 
the world." 

And why may not men expect " a grand breakdown 
of the world," or as it is generally called, the " end of 
the world " ? The Scriptures plainly and positively 
teach it. Practically every Christian creed either af- 
firms or at least recognizes it; and in the Scriptures, 
in religious literature, in the newspapers, and in the 
minds of people generally, the second coming of Christ 
and " the end of the world " are associated as inti- 
mately and necessarily related the one .to the other. 




THE THIRD ANGEL'S MESSAGE 
Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of 
God, and the faith of Jesus." Rev. 14 : 12. 

■ 112 




INTO THE HEART OF AFRICA 
The Victoria Falls Railroad Bridge over the Zambesi 



THE GOSPEL TO ALL NATIONS 

One of the prominent, positive, and universal signs 
of the approaching end of this age, '' the great break- 
down of the world," — the second advent, — is the world- 
wide proclamation of the gospel. Answering still the 
question of his disciples, " What shall be the sign of Thy 
coming, and of the end of the world?" (Matt. 24:3), 
Jesus said : " This gospel of the kingdom shall be 
preached in all the world for a witness unto all na- 
tions; and then shall the end come" (verse 14). 

There is no ambiguity nor uncertainty in this an- 
swer. The whole problem is clear. Christ is coming 
the second time, and His coming will be heralded to all 
the world by the proclamation of the gospel to every 
nation. 

The Threefold Message of Revelation 14 

This same world-wide gospel movement was re- 
vealed in greater detail to St. John on the isle of 
Patmos, sixty years or more after the ascension of 
8 113 



114 A World in Perplexity 

Jesus. His outline of that great movement is as 
follows : 

" I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, 
having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that 
dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, 
and tongue, and people, saying with a loud voice. Fear 
God, and give glory to Him; for the hour of His judg- 
ment is come: and worship Him that made heaven, and 
earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters. 

" And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon 
is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all 
nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her forni- 
cation. 

" And the third angel followed them, saying with 
a loud voice. If any man worship the beast and his 
image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his 
hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath 
of God. . . . 

*' Here is the patience of the saints : here are they 
that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of 
Jesus. . . . 

" And I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon 
the cloud one sat like unto the Son of man, having on 
His head a golden crown, and in His hand a sharp 
sickle." Rev. 14 : 6-14. 

The Gospel Message Outlined 

Summarizing the prominent features of this out- 
line, we have the following: 

First, this is a gospel movement. Verse 6. It is 
the proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ, which 
is " the power of God unto salvation to every one that 
believeth." Rom. 1 : 16. It is the " everlasting gospel " 
in the setting for the hour. Emphasis is placed upon 
those features of the gospel that are of special mean- 
ing and value at the time the message is duo. 



The Gospel to All Nations 115 

Second, this is a world-wide movement. It is to 
reach '* every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and 
people " on the earth. All classes in all the world — 
Christian and heathen, civilized and barbarous, rich 
and poor, cultured and untrained — are to be warned 
of the coming perils, and invited to the only sure place 
of refuge. By land and by sea the message is to be 
carried, to the busy throngs in the centers of popula 
tion, and to the remote, isolated, scattered peoples in 
partially explored lands and in the islands of the sea. 
And this will be done. John not only saw the work 
in progress, but he saw its glorious consummation in 
a company of people standing around God's throne, 
who had been gathered out of every nation by this 
message. 

Third, the message to be announced is a threefold 
proclamation. The messages of the three angels blend 
into one great movement, achieving one great end. 

Fourth, this threefold message is a last-day message. 
It proclaims to all men the startling truth that the 
judgment is at hand. The judgment day is a promi- 
nent event in the great program of the gospel. It is 
a last-day event. It comes in connection with the 
closing part of Christ's ministry. His mediatorial work 
for the world. 

Fifth, this message is reformatory. It tells pro- 
fessed Christians of their departure from the true 
standard, of their fall from the high spiritual ground 
they once occupied, and therefore of their unprepared- 
ness to meet God in the judgment. Furthermore, this 
message utters a most solemn warning against some 
of the most conspicuous errors and dangers of the 
time. 

Sixth, the result of the proclamation of this three- 
fold message in all the world is the gathering out from 
the nations of a people of whom it is said, " Here are 



116 A World i7i Perplexity 

they that keep the commandments of God, and the 
faith of Jesus." Rev. 14 : 12. These persons are pre- 
pared for the judgment; they are ready to meet their 
Lord. No Christian ever did more than to " keep the 
commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus." This 
meets every requirement of the gospel. 

Seventh, this threefold message ushers in the second 
coming of Christ. " I looked, and behold a white cloud, 
and upon the cloud one sat like unto the Son of man, 
having on His head a golden crown, and in His hand a 
sharp sickle." Rev. 14: 14. This is a description of 
the return of Christ to His people. When He left His 
disciples on the Mount of Olives, " a cloud received 
Him out of their sight." Angels who stood by the 
disciples said to them, " This same Jesus, which is 
taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like 
manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven." Acts 
1:9, 11. 

His departure was personal and visible; His return 
will be personal and visible. A cloud received Him 
out of their sight; a cloud will bring Him in sight 
again, and all *' shall see the Son of man coming in 
the clouds of heaven with power and great glory." 
Matt. 24 : 30. 

Christ returns a king. He has " on His head a 
golden crown" (Rev. 14: 14), signifying that He is no 
longer a priest. He has received a kingdom, and now 
comes to begin His reign. 

He has in " His hand a sharp sickle." He is ready 
to reap the harvest of the earth. In His parable of 
the sower, Jesus long before declared that " the harvest 
is the end of the world." Matt. 13 : 39. 

Thus it is clear that the return of Christ will be 
heralded to all the world by a gospel message shaped 
for the hour. When that message has accomplished 
its purpose, Christ will come, according to His promise. 



The Gospel to All Nations 117 

He will then bring to an end the reign of sin and death. 
This will forever banish all the pain, the sorrow, and 
the suffering of this sin-cursed earth. Hail, glad day! 

This Prophecy Fulfilled 

Passing from the interpretation of the prophecy to 
its fulfilment, it can be affirmed with all sincerity and 
with great joy that this message (Rev. 14:6-14) is 
now being proclaimed to the world. According to 
the prophecy of Daniel, it was due in 1844, and true 
to all His ways of working, the Lord launched the 
movement on exact time. " When the hour struck, 
the work began." The movement John saw in vision 
and described nearly two thousand years ago, we see 
in active operation today. 

The statements used by Bible writers in foretelling 
the rise, progress, and culmination of the Advent 
Movement, and what we see taking place, assure us 
that this message is now being given to the world. 
The gospel is being preached for a witness unto all 
nations. A movement is on foot that meets every 
specification of the prophecy. 

And the message is being given in the very lan- 
guage of prophecy. Sincere men and women are turn- 
ing to the commandments of God as the true standard 
of the Christian life. At the same time they are look- 
ing to the Lord Jesus Christ as the only source of 
power to enable them to keep the law of God. In His 
name and strength they are achieving victories. 

The Way Prepared 

For nineteen hundred years the long-suffering of 
God has waited even as it waited in the days of Noah, 
*' while the ark was a preparing." But God cannot 
always wait. His purpose must be fulfilled. His will 
must be accomplished ; and in these last days His prov- 
idence has wrought marvelous changes in long-standing 



TJie Goaijel to All Nations 119 

conditions throughout the earth, to prepare the way 
for the proclamation of " this gospel of the kingdom," 
— the world-wide message of the end of the age and 
the fulfilment of His eternal purpose concerning the 
earth and its peoples. A century ago conditions in all 
non-Christian lands were in every w^ay opposed to the 
evangelization of the people, and these forbidding con- 
ditions seemed altogether immovable. But during the 
last century these conditions have changed. A mighty 
power has swept the barriers away. They no longer 
exist. 

One of the great barriers was exclusion. Great 
'' walls of adamant and gates of steel " shut out West- 
ern nations and Christian missionaries. And they 
shut these heathen people in, thus cutting off effective 
communication. But today these walls are gone. Of 
the wonderful change that has been effected in this 
one particular, the late Dr. Arthur T. Pierson, one of 
the greatest champions of the cause of foreign mis- 
sions, once said: 

" The twentieth century finds the world-field with 
fences down, inviting tillage. When the ' Haystack 
band,* at Williamstown, a century ago, was praying 
and planning about missions, so fevv^ were the open- 
ings that it took large faith to see any prospect of suc- 
cess. Africa was the unexplored continent; Asia was 
the walled continent, shutting out the gospel herald 
with walls of adamant and gates of steel; Europe was 
the papal continent, as forbidding to Protestant work- 
ers as pagan isles in the South Seas. Over the Moslem 
territory the green flag floated in defiance, and no 
evangelical worker dared hope for any toleration; 
South America was half papal and half pagan, wrapt 
m a pall of impenetrable night. Whichever way one 
looked, impassable obstacles seemed to make impossible 
a path for the Christian missionary. 



120 A World in Perplexity 

" Since then the iron gates have opened as of their 
own accord, in every direction, and during a single 
decade about the middle of the last century, access 
was given to about three fourths of the world, hitherto 
more or less rigidly exclusive/* 

About the beginning of the nineteenth century the 
Christian church in a definite, determined way began 
the work that has culminated in a great movement 
for the evangelization of the world. At first, and for 
a long time, this effort encountered great opposition. 
But the church gained ground, making steady prog- 
ress in all parts of the world. At last the barriers 
began to fall. 

In 1842 a treaty was made between Great Britain 
and China which has resulted in opening the latter 
country to all Christian workers. 

In 1844-47 Persia was thrown open to gospel mis- 
sionaries. 

From 1835-86 changes took place in Korea which 
resulted in throwing her gates wide open to Christian 
workers. 

In 1851 Siam was opened to the gospel. 

From 1854-58 treaties were entered into between 
Japan and the United States, which opened Japan to 
the gospel. 

In 1858 India and Burma passed under British 
rule, thus assuring the fullest liberty and protection 
to Christian missionaries. 

And in 1898 the American occupation of the Philip- 
pines opened those islands to Protestant missionaries. 

Gospel Forces at Work 

As these gates have swung open. Christian mis^ 
sionaries have promptly passed through to give the 
gospel of light and life and salvation to the people. 
The growth, the power, and the achievements of the 



The Gospel to All Nations 121 

foreign missions movement during the past century 
have been truly marvelous. One hundred years ago 
there were less than one hundred Protestant mission- 
aries at work in non-Christian lands, and these were 
confined to a very few places. 

Today there are twenty-five thousand foreign mis- 
sionaries at work in non-Christian and non-Protestant 
lands. These workers are being assisted by one hun- 
dred twenty-five thousand native Christian workers 
who have been won to the cross of Christ. Thus by 
preaching and teaching, by circulating the Scriptures 
and Christian literature, and by living Christian lives, 
the gospel is being revealed to multiplied millions who 
had never heard of it a few decades ago. It is with 
profound gratitude that Christian people everywhere 
behold in active, vigorous progress the glorious work 
for which the providence of God has created such 
marvelous changes throughout the world. 

In the midst of the greatest world conflict of all 
^(i;.the ages the gospel of peace and good will to men is« 
going as never before. As earthly kingdoms are fall- 
ing to pieces and every human refuge fails, a voice is 
heard everywhere saying, " Come unto Me, all ye that 
labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 
Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am 
meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto 
your souls." And the preaching of this gospel of the 
kingdom in all the world is in itself, as we have seen, 
a sign of the end, of the coming of the King, and the 
establishing of His everlasting kingdom. 




CHRIST COMING IN GLORY 
The Son of man shall come in His glory, and all the holy angels 
with Him." Matt. 25: 31. 



122 



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THE TR\N3PIGITRATI0N A TYPE OF HIS COMING 
*"llehoId, there appeared unto them Moses and Elias talking with Him." Matt. 17:3. 



THE CLIMAX 

God's last-day, world-wide message culminates in 
the second coming of Christ. St. John saw this mes- 
sage extend until it penetrated everj^ nation. He saw 
it gathering from every " nation, and kindred, and 
tongue, and people " a great company of whom he said, 
" Here are they that keep the commandments of God, 
and the faith of Jesus.'' Then he beheld " a white 
cloud, and upon the cloud one sat like unto the Son of 
man, having: on His head a golden crown, and in His 
hand a sharp sickle." Rev. 14 : 6, 12, 14. 

Let us emphasize the thought that this is the return 
of Christ in fulfilment of His own promise to come 
again, and the promise of the angels that He will so 
come in like manner as He went avv^ay. Now, however, 
He comes, not as the humble Carpenter of Nazareth, but 
as King. He has closed His work as priest, and has 

123 




THE DYING SOLDIER'S VISION 
Painted in a prison camp in Siberia by a student of the Vienna Academy 

124 



The Climax 125 

received from His Father a iJingdom. The prophet 
Daniel says: 

'' I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like 
the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and 
came to the Ancient of days, and they brought Him 
near before Him. And there was given Him dominion, 
and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and 
languages, should serve Him: His dominion is an ever- 
lasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and His 
kingdom that which shall not be destroyed." Dan. 
7:13, 14. 

The gift of this kingdom to Christ is in fulfilment 
of the promise recorded by Luke : " He shall be great, 
and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the 
Lord God shall give unto Him the throne of His father 
David: and He shall reign over the house of Jacob for- 
ever; and of His kingdom there shall be no end." 
Luke 1 : 32, 33. 

St. John, to whom this great event was revealed, 
wrote : " The kingdoms of this world are become the 
kingdoms of our Lord, and of His Christ; and He shall 
reign forever and ever." Rev. 11 : 15. 

This fulfils the promise made to Christ and re- 
corded in the Psalms : " Ask of Me, and I shall give 
Thee the heathen for Thine inheritance, and the utter- 
most parts of the earth for Thy possession." Ps. 2 : 8. 

When this is fulfilled, Christ will " come in His 
glory, and all the holy angels with Him ; " and " then 
shall He sit upon the throne of His glory." Matt. 25: 
31. "And He shall send His angels, ... and they shall 
gather together His elect from the four winds, from 
one end of heaven to the other." Matt. 24:31. It is 
then that "many shall come from the east and west, 
and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, 
in the kingdom of heaven." Matt. ^:11, 




THE KINGDOM OF PEACE 
Thy kimrdom come. Thy will he done in earth, as it is in heaven." Matt. 6: 10. 



Tlie Climax 127 

Thus ''the kingdom and dominion, and the great- 
ness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be 
given to the people of the saints of the Most High, 
whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all do- 
minions shall serve and obey Him." Dan. 7 : 27. 

Then will be fulfilled this scripture : '* Every 
creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and 
under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all 
that are in them, heard I saying. Blessing, and honor, 
and glory, and power, be unto Him that sitteth upon 
the throne, and unto the Lamb forever and ever." 
Rev. 5 : 13. 

This is the climax, the great objective in God's 
plan for the human race. Sin — that hateful thing 
which has brought all the evil this world has known 
— is destroyed and banished forever. The ills of the 
human race are cured. The cause of sorrow, suffering, 
and tears is removed. No longer are there disappoint- 
ments, unrest, strife, and revolution. Distress, ac- 
companied by torturing perplexity, is ended. No longer 
do men's hearts fail them " for fear, and for looking 
after those things which are coming." 

*' The Lord shall comfort Zion : he will comfort all 
her waste places; and He will make her wilderness like 
Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord; 
joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, 
and the voice of melody." Isa. 51 : 3. 

This is God's answer to the cry of this groaning 
creation. And this is the only true answer there is. 
All other plans and schemes for the regeneration of 
the race have failed, and will continue to fail. The 
best of them are but weak crutches that only help us 
to hobble on a little longer. But God's remedy is 
effective, and it is complete. It sounds the depths of 
human needs; it lifts every redeemed soul to the high- 
est pinnacle of true greatness and unalloyed happiness. 



128 



A World in. Perplexity 



Every human being is embraced in this great plan 
of redemption, and may share in its consummation, if 
he so decides. In these closing moments of probation, 
" the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that 
heareth say. Come. And let him that is athirst come. 
And whosoever will, let him take the water of life 
freely." " He which testifieth these things saith, Surely 
I come quickly." And God's waiting church responds, 
" Even so, come, Lord Jesus." Rev. 22 : 17, 20. 




The Prince of Peace 



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